M&S pauses all online orders after cyber attack

The historic retailer said it is ‘working extremely hard to restart online and app shopping’ and apologised again for disruption to shoppers.

Marks and Spencer has temporarily stopped taking orders from its website and apps amid the deepening fallout of a cyber attack.

The historic retailer said it is “working extremely hard to restart online and app shopping” and apologised again for disruption to shoppers.

It has already been unable to process click and collect orders in stores after being impacted by a “cyber incident”.

Contactless payments at stores have also been affected by the attack, which has impacted stores since last weekend.

“We are truly sorry for this inconvenience,” the company said. “Our stores are open to welcome customers.

“We informed customers on Tuesday that there was no need for them to take any action.

“That remains the case, and if the situation changes we will let them know.”

In an email to customers on Tuesday after first confirming the problem, M&S chief executive Stuart Machin said: “I’m writing to let you know that over the last few days M&S has been managing a cyber incident.

“To protect you and the business, it was necessary to temporarily make some small changes to our store operations, and I am sincerely sorry if you experienced any inconvenience.”

The company has taken actions to protect its network and has also reported the incident to data protection supervisory authorities and the National Cyber Security Centre.

Shares in the company fell 4.8% on Friday afternoon as a result, and were down by 2% when markets closed at the end of the day.

By Press Association