The Co-op has become the latest retailer to shut down part of its computer systems. ITV News BUsiness Editor Joel Hills reports from the company’s London HQ.
The Co-op has told staff they can no longer access the company’s IT system remotely from home, following an attempted hack at the weekend.
The incident took place days after Marks & Spencer announced it had been the target of a cyberattack.
ITV News has seen a copy of an email sent to the Co-op’s staff on Wednesday morning.
The Co-op’s Chief Digital and Information Officer, Rob Elsey, said: “We’re currently dealing with an IT issue after our security controls and monitoring flagged third parties had made attempts to access our IT systems over the weekend.”
The email goes on to ask staff to “remain vigilant” and adds:
- Don’t record or transcribe Microsoft Teams calls
- Ensure all attendees are as expected and that users are on camera.
- Be aware of any suspicious emails or links.
It would appear from the email that someone tried and failed to log in to the Co-op’s network, but this is not something the company is willing to confirm.
The Co-op says it has shut down some of its back office and call centre services, but that all of its 2,000 stores and 800 funeral homes are “trading as normal”.
It added that there is “no need for members or customers to do anything” at this point, which suggests data has not been accessed.
It isn’t clear if the attempted hack at the Co-op is linked with the problems Mark & Spencer has been experiencing.
M&S’s online ordering system has been out of action since Wednesday, April 23, costing the company millions of pounds in lost sales.
M&S is a large business and, like any large business, it has several companies supporting its IT system.
One of them is Microsoft, whose data centres host the M&S website.
Microsoft and M&S launched a strategic partnership seven years ago to use Artificial Intelligence to improve the way M&S was run.
On Wednesday, at an online press conference, ITV News asked the president of Microsoft if he could confirm who the hackers were, how they got into M&S’s network and how quickly it would be before the website is up and running again.
Brad Smith replied: “We are always there to work with our customers, to defend and help our customers. But it’s always the customer who should be the one speaking, not Microsoft.”
On Wednesday night, M&S declined to confirm if it is being assisted by Microsoft. The Metropolitan Police has confirmed it is looking into the Cyberattack.
According to the National Cyber Security Service – which is working with both M&S and the Co-op – there were 89 “nationally significant” cyberattacks in the UK last year, a threefold increase on the year before.
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