M&S CYBER CRISIS Erase almost 700 million pounds of retail rating

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A suspected cybernetic attack has erased almost £ 700 million from the value of Marks and Spencer, as the retailer FTSE 100 struggles to restore his operations after almost a week of disruption.

M&S He told some customers on Monday that he did not know how long it would take to restart online orders, after the incident forced him to stop accepting clothes and household orders last Friday.

In the meantime, it was said that about 200 employees of the M&S online distribution center in Leicestershire stayed home, as there were fewer orders to fulfill. Clothing online sales and M&S Home amounted to 1.27 million pounds last year, equating to an average of approximately 3.5 million pounds a day.

M&S actions dropped more than 2 percent on Monday morning, extending its fall to 7 percent from last Tuesday, when it first spread that its computer systems had been interrupted. The M&S market value has dropped by 678 million pounds at this time.

The retailer has struggled to process without contact and stopped clicking and collected orders in stores. Some stores no longer accept product returns.

The chaos threatens to disorganize a change under CEO Stuart Machin. The retail, who reported a profit before the tax of 716.4 million pounds last year, is expected to announce its results throughout the year on May 21.

Cyber ​​safety Experts said that the M&S episode brings the badges of a ransomware attack, by which cybercrimers steal data from a company or block their computer systems in exchange for cash.

Andrew Northage, a member of the Walker Morris law firm, who has experience in the Cybersecurity Act, said: “It cannot be ruled out that it is something else, but … it looks like a cybernetic attack.” He added that M&A will try to establish why they have been attacked and “what are the bad actors looking for, is it rescue? Is it advertising?”

M&S is one of the various retailers suffering from a significant interruption of IT. Christmas sales in the WM Morrisons supermarket chain were affected by a cyber attack last year, and both Currys and JD Sports have suffered attacks that violated the customer’s data.

M& is told customers last week that “there was no need to take any action”, suggesting that they believed that their data was secure. The company refused to provide an update of the situation on Monday.

Kate Calvert, an Investigian analyst, said that while M&A customers would experience “a lot of short -term frustration”, the cybernetic attack probably would not hurt the company’s brand in the long term.

However, Calvert added, competitors would benefit from M&S problems. “If you are about to go on vacation and you are not receiving (products) of M&S, you will buy them elsewhere,” he said.

M&S has been informed at the Office of the Information Commissioner and works with the National Cybersecurity Center to respond to breach. All organizations have a duty to report breaches to the ICO within 72 hours after becoming aware of an incident.