M&S ‘cyber Incident’

[user1471427667]

Hi,
not sure what is going with M&S. Firstly, last week they were wrongly advertising 15% off everything but when you got to checkout it didn’t go through and just called it a ‘glitch’. Then, I went into store on Monday and while queuing at checkout I heard the cashier explain that all their tills were offline and they were unable to honour any sparks online offers. As I had a 20% off voucher for some trousers, I decided to wait and order them online instead, thinking it was just a problem with my local store.
I placed an order online on Wednesday for 3 items, my money was debited from my card as usual and I was sent an email with order details saying my items would be ready to collect in storeon Saturday - all good.
As I’m checking my order this morning, I see the items haven’t even been despatched yet. Then this afternoon, I see the following message on the website ( I was unaware of this and wonder why, if they knew this on Tuesday, did they take my money for my order on Wednesday?)
I also realise, I cancelled another order last week and I’ve yet to receive a refund ( usually get them within 48hrs)

I think it was around when they started having issues but hadn’t made it public. It looks like anything ordered from 23rd onwards is being refunded. But anything before should arrive. I’m really pleased & hope I can collect it okay on Thursday.

ok. My order was placed on 23rd ( I hadn’t heard about the issues when I placed it, but think they were known about and some people had got emails from CEO).
I was hoping as they keep telling me to hang on for 48 hrs that I might get the order as why not just refund it if not?

Well, just got an email to say my order from 23rd has been cancelled and a refund issued.
At least I know now, and I did manage to get a couple of the items from the order in store this morning, so all is not lost
Hope everyone still waiting gets an answer soon

This is what they have been dealing with.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/marks-and-spencer-breach-linked-to-scattered-spider-ransomware-attack/

They're having to do a lot of things manually, as a result, including according to DH who has read in more detail) checking fridge and freezer temperatures at regular intervals because the automated reporting isn't taking place.

Yeah I just got an email too.

I'm pissed off though as it's taken them a week and my nearest M&S is miles away.

Wish they'd told me sooner.

Oh well.

Yes, wish they’d told us sooner instead of ‘will let you know in 48 hours’ and then when the times up saying again ‘we’ll contact you about your order in next 48hours”.
I’d almost convinced myself that order would come because everyone who placed orders on Friday ( just before they closed online orders) they cancelled and refunded immediately, so thought because my order was 2 days before that and wasn’t cancelled that it was a good sign.
Hopefully it won’t be too long before online orders are unpaused.

Another well known supermarket has been hacked and worse than M&S. The staff have had to sign an NDA and it's being kept quiet. Someone I know works for this company

Nightmare for any business to deal with. A combination of IT complexities that would challenge any PhD whizz, unpicking the sales transactions to date & correcting them, ditto the buying & logistics, never mind the financial side. In business, I’ve had to game these scenarios but nothing compares you for the real thing.
They’re pretty phenomenal for dealing with it so far!

I've been reading about this today. I didn't know the hackers ( Suspected hackers!) may well have issued a ransom demand.
This is why M&S have been keeping this quiet.
The alternative to payment is changing to completely new online systems which will take time.

Yes, I saw something about that too ( have to admit a lot of it goes completely over my head) Can’t believe that I’ve heard and seen the term ‘ransonware’ lots of times over the years but never clicked that it literally meant they ask for a ransom!

if it’s been hacked even worse than M&S, then how can it possibly be kept quiet? Surely customers are going to notice contactless payments not working, orders not being fulfilled etc etc. plus how are NDA’s supposed to be work and stop anyone finding out when your friend has already told you!?

Surely that will become apparent when they have problems with stock and orders, too.

Agreed and supermarkets employ thousands and thousands of people. There is no way legal can pull together an NDA, send it out to all, have it returned from all signed and not a whisper to the press.

Unfortunately it's not as simple as just unpausing orders or issuing a refund. They have multiple complex systems that were possibly infected with a virus. They may have to rebuild all those systems if they can't unpick it. The criminals who create these virus's are incredibly clever.

Sorry to hear that. At least you know now and hopefully things will be back to normal fairly soon. It must be a nightmare for them and I assume they couldn’t access information to either process or refund orders so had no choice but to keep us in limbo. I feel for the staff on the shop floor and especially for their IT department who must be working non stop to try and resolve this.

I totally echo these thoughts Lily. Hearing about how complex this attack has been, I’m actually just very grateful they did what they could in a bad situation. It also seems like our bank details weren’t compromised ( or at least they don’t seem to have been so far). Like you say, if they couldn’t actually access their systems they had no choice but to keep us in limbo. I’m sure if they possibly could they would have fulfilled as many orders as possible - keeps customer goodwill plus good financially for them. Imagine having to take the decision to cancel thousands of orders and give people their money back .

Is it Asda? There have been a few posts on our community FB page that they’ve been overcharged and that customer service are being strangely glib about it.

Well I'm paying cash in Asda later "just in case"

Don't be ridiculous, it's not something that you can hide with a NDA if it's an attack like M&S has

Depends which systems are compromised. I know 2 people in the company incl 1 in IT security and he was v.busy this w/e.

Cleau that person doesn't understand what an NDA is and may be having you on, how could there be a worse hack than M and S and not a single customer noticed

Your posts is reminiscent of those in COVID who knew a secret thing, strangely none of those secret things ever happened

I've seen apologies all over x and Facebook from the CEO

What I don't get is WHY is this attack on M and S so bad?

When other stores/banks have been hit its usually sorted in a few hours or at most a day or so

This M and S attack has been a WEEK now! What the fuck is going on ?

I've just heard that Scattered Spider (teens) attacked M and S 😬😳

But you said worse than M&S, maybe don't embellish the story next time

This thread, my god. What part of the phrase ‘cyber attack’ are people not comprehending? It can take weeks to even work out the extent what has happened when it comes to something like this, of course they’re not going to be on top of their usual customer service if they can’t access their bloody systems. The disruption is the point. It’s not the fault of M&S!!