Tue, 08 Jul 2025

Tue, 08 Jul 2025 Hackers tried to 'destroy' M&S, chair tells MPs

Archie Norman says the hackers were "seeking to stop customers shopping at M&S" but their motive was "partly, undoubtedly, ransom or extortion".
M&S Chairman Archie Norman says that hackers behind April's cyber attack were trying to destroy the business. The company believes DragonForce, a hacker group, was responsible for the attack and wanted payment. The attack caused M&S to halt online orders and led to empty shelves in stores. Customers will still be affected until the end of this month. M&S has not commented on whether they paid a ransom, which would likely be in the millions. Norman says that discussing the interaction with the threat actor is not an option. The company suffered losses due to the attack, with profits expected to take a hit of around £300m. M&S hopes to recover some of this cost from insurance payouts. Norman suggests that large companies should be required to report material cyber attacks and criticized "legacy systems" that left the company vulnerable to the attack. M&S has been working on strengthening its cybersecurity systems, but Norman acknowledges that even with improved security, there is no guarantee against a successful attack.
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