Three teenagers and woman, 20, arrested over crippling cyber-attack on Marks & Spencer, Co-op and Harrods
Three teenagers and a 20-year-old woman have been arrested as part of an investigation into cyber-attacks targeting Marks & Spencer, Co-op and Harrods.
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The National Crime Agency (NCA) has said the individuals were arrested early on Thursday morning on suspicion of blackmail, money laundering, offences linked to the Computer Misuse Act and participating in the activities of an organised crime group.
The arrests included a 17-year-old British man from the West Midlands, 19-year-old Latvian man from the West Midlands, 19-year-old British man from London and 20-year-old British woman from Staffordshire.
All four were arrested from their home addresses and remain in custody.
It comes after investigations by NCA into attacks against the three retailers, where hackers sought ransom payments after breaking into their IT systems.
Read more: Woman unfairly dismissed from Marks and Spencer because she was pregnant
Paul Foster, head of the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit, said: “Since these attacks took place, specialist NCA cybercrime investigators have been working at pace and the investigation remains one of the agency’s highest priorities.
“Today’s arrests are a significant step in that investigation but our work continues, alongside partners in the UK and overseas, to ensure those responsible are identified and brought to justice.”
The boss of Marks & Spencer said earlier this month he hopes to have the majority of the impact from the cyber attack “behind us” by August.
Stuart Machin, chief executive of the high street giant, said he hopes its online operations will be running “fully” within four weeks as it continues to recover.
In April, M&S was forced to halt online orders after it was targeted by hackers.
M&S revealed that the hack would cost the company around £300 million after a ransomeware attack on the retailer's computer system.
The attack saw contactless in-store payments halted and online orders frozen.
Last month, online orders were finally re-started through its website, allowing shoppers to once again purchase clothing and new products for home delivery to England, Scotland and Wales.
Bosses told the firm’s annual general meeting in London that click and collect and next-day delivery operations have not yet returned, but should be back within weeks.
Mr Machin said: “Currently, half of online is open but not areas like click and collect. Within the next four weeks we are hoping for the whole of online to be fully on.
“Then our focus will be getting the Donington site back and running.
“We’re hoping that by August we will have the vast majority of this behind us and people can see the full M&S.”
Chairman Archie Norman highlighted that the company has been progressing through its recovery programme to return operations to normal.
“Every week new systems are coming back,” he said.
“Hopefully in a few weeks we’ll be humming – we’re hopeful we’ll be back to full operations very shortly.”
Mr Norman also highlighted that executive pay deals could be impacted by any drop in financial performance caused by the cyber attack this financial year.
He added: “The financial effect of this will be taken into account with regards to incentive pay, but it’s too early to say.
“We are planning to come back stronger and want to go gangbusters for the rest of the year, but whatever the impact on shareholders, that comes through in remuneration as well.”
At the meeting, shareholders voted in favour of the group’s pay deal for the year to March, which saw Mr Machin’s overall pay packet jump by 39% to £7.1 million, driven by performance-linked bonuses.
Meanwhile, a majority voted against a resolution put forward by Share Action which called on M&S to disclose information on the number of employees earning below the real living wage.