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THE M&S BOSS BLAMED THE CYBER ATTACK ON 'HUMAN ERROR' AS HE PROVIDED AN UPDATE TO SHOPPERS AND INVESTORS 11:06, 21 May 2025 Retail giant Marks & Spencer has warned that the

disruption caused by a major cyber attack will continue. M&S boss Stuart Machin thanked customers for their "unwavering support" in an update which confirmed that disruption

to its operations could last into July. He also warned investors that it is facing a £300m hit to trading profits as a result of the cyber attack. The retailer is still not accepting online

orders, which have been down since April 25. It first declared an incident after the cyber attack on April 22. Some M&S stores were left with empty shelves over Easter weekend as the

chain grappled with the fallout of the attack. On Wednesday morning (May 21), the retailer said that online sales and profits in its fashion, home and beauty business have been "heavily

impacted". It added that food sales were affected by reduced availability but that this is "already improving". While M&S said online sales could be disrupted until July,

Mr Machin added that it was gearing-up to begin restarting orders "within a matter of weeks". It is believed that the group fell victim to the same hackers, known as Scattered

Spider, who were linked to similar attacks the Co-op and Harrods towards the end of April. Article continues below M&S confirmed on May 13 that some customer data was stolen in the cyber

which could include names, date of birth, phone numbers, home addresses, email addresses, household information, and online order histories. It added that any card information taken would

not be useable as it does not hold full card payment details on its systems. On Wednesday, chief executive Stuart Machin said blamed "human error" for the attack and refused to

comment on whether the retailer had paid a ransom to the hackers. It is believed that the hackers managed to gain entry through a third party who had access to its systems. _For our free

daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation,__ sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here_ The company said: "Over the last few weeks, we have been managing a highly

sophisticated cyber incident. As a team, we have worked around the clock with suppliers and partners to contain the incident and stabilise operations, taking proactive measures to minimise

the disruption for customers. "We are seeking to make the most of the opportunity to accelerate the pace of improvement of our technology transformation and have found new and

innovative ways of working. "We are focused on recovery, restoring our systems, operations and customer proposition over the rest of the first half, with the aim of exiting this period

a much stronger business. "Since the incident, Food sales have been impacted by reduced availability, although this is already improving. We have also incurred additional waste and

logistics costs, due to the need to operate manual processes, impacting profit in the first quarter. "In Fashion, Home & Beauty, online sales and trading profit have been heavily

impacted by the necessary decision to pause online shopping, however stores have remained resilient. Article continues below "We expect online disruption to continue throughout June and

into July as we restart, then ramp up operations. This will also mean increased stock management costs in the second quarter."