Will Marks and Spencer survive?

[MerryPortas]

It’s hard to imagine the full scale of the cyber attack and the impact on their business.

yes, annoying for the shoppers, but they must be losing millions in daily revenue online, and I doubt that’s being backfilled by increased physical footfall.

stock levels are unpredictable - understandably - so confidence is low.

shoppers are creatures of habit, and change is habit forming.

So my question is, do you think M and S is at risk?

I have some sympathy with @Seamonds's post. I am 5'6" and a size 14 and find they rarely have trousers in Long in stock in the shops. Regular sits at half mast. I find it extraordinary to be honest.

I read that they changed their cyber security and saved 35m. At a time when their sales were down .They were short sighted IMO .Our M and S is 3 floors .Lots of food there when we went and a reasonable selection of clothing .

I very much hope they don't go under due to a criminal and vicious cyber attack.

My local store is fabulous (except for the zero stock in long length trousers but that prevails across all stores). Their stock is good, the branch is immaculate and the staff are brilliant.

Makes note to go and spend there this afternoon.

Big fan of people suddenly becoming experts in IT and cyber security overnight.

"They outsourced their IT services" - and? Absolutely no indication whatsoever that has anything to do with any system vulnerabilitie

Just pay the ransom - aye go on then, that'll sort everything out, no need to worry about hackers not actually doing what they'd said they'd do once they've got the funds

If only they listened to the Mumsnet cranks rather than actual experts eh

Quite. I live near a city centre M&S in the south. They only have massive bras. Never ever my size in the young Rosie type bras.
And never the cutting edge popular footwear. Just the big standard stuff.

Yet the city in question is teeming with 'down from Londons' middle class affluent mums who would clear it out. It's opposite Oliver bonas, space NK and the white company. It baffles me whenever I go in.

That said I really hope they survive. I buy my clothes from them online and DCs uniforms.

I think short and stout is an insult really. My slim 5'7" DD fits their clothes.
Admittedly I'm 5' 10" and yes, I know what you mean about the top halves not fitting, my torso is stupidly long. I do find their jeans have got longer recently, I had to go down to a regular! in one pair - I'm 32" inside leg.
I do wear a lot of their menswesr though and even some of their boys wear.

Life without M&S is bizarrely difficult to contemplate although they can behave bizarrely.
I'm vegan and they decided to put their fake bacon with the real bacon, chicken nuggets with the real chicken.Searching through meat products for plant alternatives makes no sense at all but they claim their meat eaters may want to occasionally use non meat products.
I walked through the store recently and liked a linen shirt with the instant mindset of ordering it in my size.Life really would be odd without them despite their foibles.

I hope that they survive. They are not the first business to be targeted by cyber criminals and won't be the last either.

Their shops are nice, I like the homeware.

I think these type of over critical customers M& will probably be glad to lose.
Paying the ransom is insane, it won't stop there.
Tesco has been having trouble with electronic payments recently, I do wonder if they are brewing issues too.

It’s such a shame - inconvenient for me but that pales in comparison to anyone who works there and is dealing with this.

and their clothing has been sooooo good lately, there’s loads I could be buying but I’m no where near a shop 😣

This sort of cyber attack could happen to any company. I feel sorry for M & S and I guess it serves as a warning for other companies. It could have happened anywhere though. I think these sort of attacks are going to be more common and we all need to be prepared as the attackers will start to target other rganisations other than retailers. We are so dependent on IT these days and we need to be prepared.

I feel like there is a bit of an M&S shaped hole. Want school shorts for DS and also some specific trousers for me for work. I don't shop there all that often but I miss them

Well it’s pretty clear they were skimping on security

There is absolutely no reason an organisation like M&S should not be resilient against a cyber attack. They should have current and ongoing protection. It is available. They just haven’t acquired it.

I think it’s a good thing for them their clothing business is out of the doldrums but yes I think they’ll survive ok

Yes, they are insured and I'd guess a new system is being developed to replace what was. They are not unique and hacking is imo going to be very common, so guard your data, don't put all your eggs on one device and regularly change passwords. Oh and never trust a text, or a message asking for anything, simply kill it off and initiate contact cleanly yourself.

I wish that was true!

I haven't shopped there this century, so quite honestly it wouldn't have any impact on me whatsoever if Marks and Spencer closed down. It's overrated, dated, and overpriced IMO.

Will M & S survive? Yes, but the assumed insurance will not cover all costs and that will be a big hole to fill. Restructuring may be down the line.
But their customer base are probably quite loyal so will return.

Clearly, lessons to be learned and ransomware can be existential for many organisations.

For those working in the company's IT, this can have a huge toll. Let's be kind to them. They don't get to determine their own budget and many organisations DO NOT INVEST until it is too late. CISO (and others) burnout is real.

For customers whose personal identifiable data is now for sale on the "dark web" - MAKE SURE YOU UPDATE YOUR PASSWORDS, DON'T USE THE SAME PASSWORDS, CHECK YOUR BANK STATEMENTS, CHECK YOUR CREDIT REPORTS, BE WARY OF UNSOLICITED EMAILS/SMS/MESSAGING INVITING YOU TO CLICK ON LINKS THAT INVOLVE INPUTTING MORE DATA OR MAKING A PAYMENT.

Sorry for the capitals. But it is very important to take protective steps.

For advice, the UKs NCSC has easy and accessible guidance and videos.

Yes and then the hackers come back for more?

But it overwhelmingly happens where policies are not followed, software is not kept up to date, servers and images are not hardened and access controls are not well managed. Very, very few attacks are genuine clever hacks, mostly they exploit failures in the estate and operations.

If I’m honest I’m surprised M&S non food is still going and I suspect like JohnLewis they survive long periods of poor quality goods and services due to the incredibly strong brand in people’s heads.

Like a PP I’m 5’11”, and lanky. The only clothes I’ve ever been able to fit from M&S are knickers. Even their women’s socks come up small on me (my feet are 7.5 so hardly outrageous these days). What M&S laughably calls “long” doesn’t reach my ankles.

My DDs have the same problem there - nothing is long enough in the leg, sleeve or even body. Interestingly my DSs could get trousers long enough (but don’t like the styles).

If M&S can produce men’s clothes for different body lengths and shapes why can’t they do it for women and older girls?

So as a shopper what happens to M&S is as irrelevant to me, just as I’m irrelevant to their buying and merchandising teams.

I hope so. Its the only place I can get K cup bras at a reasonable price and practical design. I know someone from Canada who comes to the UK annually and on her 'to-do' list is always a trip to M&S to stock up on underwear. Would be sorely missed by many.

They are insured, while it’s a nightmare for them they will be making a claim on their large corp insurance, so it will be Allianz or other who foot the bill.

You haven't shopped there for 25yrs, but you have an opinion on how they are currently trading 😂

Loving the armchair cyber-security experts on here, with the implications that if M&S had just installed Norton antivirus it could all have been avoided😂

I do hope they survive.
I don’t think their insurance will cover it.
I do know they spend tens of millions per annum on IT infrastructure, so reports of “they refused to invest” are ridiculous.