Marks & Spencer hack: When will the retailer be back to normal?
21 May 2025, 13:14
The retailer has said a recent cyber attack will cost the firm around £300 million.
Marks & Spencer has said a recent cyber attack on the retailer will cost it around £300 million.
The company also told customers that online disruption from the incident could last into July but it hopes the issues will be resolved much sooner.
It is among a raft of retailers, including the Co-op and Harrods, who have been victim to a major cyber attack in recent weeks.
Here the PA news agency looks at what happened and when normal service will be restored:
– What happened?
The retailer said it first noticed “suspicious activity” around its IT systems on the Easter weekend, having had positive trading over the start of the month.
Boss Stuart Machin said hackers sought to directly access its digital system and failed but used another route.
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He described this as using “social engineering to enter the system via a third party”, rather than a weakness in the system.
He added that there was also some “human error” that allowed the hackers in.
It is understood the process was part of a ransomware attack, reported to be linked to hacking group Scattered Spider, but the company would not comment on potential ransoms.
Customer personal data, which could have included names, email addresses, postal addresses and dates of birth, was also taken by hackers in the attack.
– What was affected?
Large swathes of the company’s traditional IT systems were affected by the attack.
The company said this initially stopped it being able to process some payments, such as contactless, while click and collect orders and returns were also affected.
Some of these issues, such as contactless payments, were quickly returned to normal.
However, the company decided to halt all online orders the next week in order to protect its customers and the rest of its online operations.
Its logistics and distribution systems were also affected, resulting in availability issues for some food products in its stores.
– When will stores be back to normal?
The company’s stores are largely back to normal already, with clothing, home and beauty availability across its shops unaffected.
Sales in this area have been slightly weaker in recent weeks however, and the group is still unable to process click and collect orders.
The group’s food business was however impacted more significantly.
There were some empty shelves after supplies were unable to reach stores but the company highlighted last week that availability was already recovering after making some previously online processes manual.
Mr Machin added on Wednesday that the “food business is delivering stock to stores as normal”.
– – When will online shopping return?
Online orders are still offline around four weeks after they were first halted on its website.
The website still works for shoppers to browse products but they are unable to make purchases.
In its update, the company said it expects disruption to its online operations to continue through next month and into July as it restarts operations.
Bosses clarified that they expect online shopping to resume “in a matter of weeks”.
Mr Machin said that around 85% of its range would be first made available online again, as it restores different parts of its online distribution network.
– Will anything change for shoppers?
Mr Machin stressed that the company will continue to minimise disruption for its shoppers.
The company told reporters that it is accelerating an overhaul of its technology over the next six months which had originally been due to take place over two years.
But the chief executive highlighted that customers “won’t see a lot” as it is predominantly “rebuilding and simplifying” its background systems.
