Several big British retailers have been in the news recently – but not for buoyant sales or new product launches. Firms like Marks & Spencer and Co-op have been hacked, affecting online sales and the range of products available in-store, and forcing them to apologise to customers and other stakeholders. Luxury retailer Harrods also suffered a near-miss.
M&S, a legacy retailer that has more than 1,000 stores across the UK, appears to have suffered the most significant damage from its cyberattack. Bank of America analysts estimated that the company has lost more than £40 million in weekly sales since the incident began over the Easter bank holiday weekend.
As a precaution, the retailer was reported to have shut down many IT operations, effectively locking itself out of its core systems as it tried to address the incident.
