Marks & Spencer has said it is still dealing with a cyber incident that hit contactless payments and click and collect orders over the Easter weekend.
On Tuesday, the high street retailer apologised to consumers as it confirmed it had to make “minor, temporary changes” to its store operations to protect customers and the business.
These included suspending contactless payments and pausing the collection of click and collect orders.
The retailer also indicated there “may be some delay” to the delivery of online orders.
A statement posted on social media read: “We have made the proactive decision to move some of our processes offline to protect our colleagues, partners, suppliers and our business.
“We are incredibly grateful for the understanding and support that our customers, colleagues, partners and suppliers have shown.
“We are working hard to restore our services and minimise disruption and are being supported by industry-leading experts.”
Speaking to ITV News on Friday, an M&S spokesperson confirmed these disruptions were still effecting stores although contactless payments had now been restored.
A spokesperson for the National Cyber Security Centre said it was working with M&S “to support their response to a cyber incident.”
On the centre’s website, it says: “When incidents do occur, we provide effective incident response to minimise harm to the UK, help with recovery, and learn lessons for the future.”
Customers have been sharing their frustrations online, with one saying: “I ordered two cakes for my daughter’s birthday party more than three weeks ago to collect on Thursday.
“The app says the items are awaiting dispatch and neither customer services or the staff in store are able to tell me when or if I will be able to collect them in time.
“It’s really frustrating – especially when you’ve planned ahead of time and now you’re having to scramble last minute.”
Writing on social media another complained: “Appreciate this is difficult for you but orders placed on [10/04] dispatched a few days later still showing as on route to store!
“You should be offering customers the option to cancel and get a refund. I need to source items elsewhere meanwhile you have my money, not acceptable.”
Speaking to ITV News, cyber security expert Rob Pritchard, said the extent of the attack meant they were “probably busy trying to get to a root cause, work out exactly what the attackers have access to and ensure they rescinded said access across each system.”
M&S is yet to confirm the cause of the cyber attack, but Mr Pritchard says large scale disruptions against individual organisations are typically caused by ransomware.
Ransomware attacks involve malicious software encrypting a user’s data and demanding a ‘ransom payment’ to ‘unlock’ the files.
“If you look at ransomware reporting over the last five years or so, there has been a steep increase,” he said.
He remains hopeful law enforcement efforts will begin to level off this increase as companies do more to defend themselves from these attacks.
Those hoping for a complete eradication might be disappointed however as he adds: “I think we should expect to see it continue though hopefully the rates of compromise will reduce.”
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