THE boss of Co-op has apologised to customers after “highly sophisticated” hackers attacked the retailer’s IT systems.
The Manchester-based co-operative is among a number of retailers, including Marks & Spencer and Harrods, to have been hit by hacks on their IT systems in recent weeks.
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Shirine Khoury-Haq, chief executive of the Co-operative Group, told customers in an email on Tuesday afternoon that the business is still “experiencing significant disruption” because of the cyber attack.
She said: “Actively managing the severity of the attack has meant shutting down some of our systems to protect the organisation.
“As previously communicated, we have established that the cyber criminals were able to access a limited amount of member data.
“This is obviously extremely distressing for our colleagues and members, and I am very sorry this happened.”
Ms Khoury-Haq said the company is “working tirelessly” to protect the business, understand the extent of the hack and provide information to relevant authorities.
It came after the Co-op was unable to take card payments in some of its stores and shoppers faced empty shelves because of the continued fallout.
Customers reported on Tuesday that three stores in Manchester had signs indicating that they were “cash only” as their card machines were offline.
It is understood that contactless payments have also been affected in a small number of stores, with the group working to get normal systems restored.
The vast majority of the retailer’s 2,300 shops are still taking usual forms of payment.
It comes as shoppers have also highlighted empty shelves in some stores, alongside signage indicating that availability has been affected by the cyber attack.
A Co-op spokesman said: “This means that some of our stores might not have all of their usual products available and we would like to say sorry to our members and customers if this is the case in their local store.
“We are working around the clock to reduce disruption and resume deliveries.
“We would like to thank our colleagues, members, customers and suppliers for their understanding during this time.”
Last week, the Co-op apologised that hackers extracted members’ personal data such as names and contact details.
It said it had to shut down parts of its IT systems after experiencing “sustained malicious attempts” to access its systems.
Meanwhile, rival Marks & Spencer (M&S) is continuing to deal with disruption caused by its own recent cyber incident, after first witnessing issues two weeks ago.
The firm has reportedly been unable to offer some meal deal offers in some of its stores after products availability was impacted.
An M&S spokesman said: “Customers can still buy meal deals in our rail station stores but there are pockets of availability for some items.
“We are working hard to continue getting our products into stores.”