Marks & Spencer pauses online orders as firm struggles with cyber-attack fallout
Marks & Spencer has halted all online orders through its website and apps as the retailer continues to battle the fallout from a cyber-attack that began last week.
The company apologised to shoppers for “this inconvenience” and paused digital orders “as part of our proactive management of a cyber incident”.
“Our experienced team – supported by leading cyber experts – is working extremely hard to restart online and app shopping,” it said.
The retailer said shoppers could continue to browse online and shop in stores using cash or card with contactless payments restarted after being paused earlier this week. Customers who have already made an online order can collect it in stores once they have received notification but new orders cannot be made.
M&S said customers did not need to take any action, indicating that their details had not been accessed.
Shares in M&S fell by 4% on Friday after the announcement, making it the biggest faller in the FTSE 100. Just over a third of M&S’s clothing and homeware sales are made online.
The cyber incident began on Monday and affected contactless payments and click-and-collect orders in stores across the country. However, there was a separate technical problem on Saturday that affected only contactless payments.
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M&S has hired cybersecurity experts to help investigate and manage the problem and said it was taking actions to further protect the network to ensure it could continue serving shoppers.