Bloody hell. It's day ELEVEN of the M&S cyber meltdown and customers are still facing absolute chaos at checkouts. I popped into my local store yesterday—big mistake. The queues were ridiculous and half the shelves looked like they'd been ransacked during an apocalypse drill.
The supermarket giant has finally come clean about just how bad things still are. No sugar-coating this time. They've admitted they're nowhere near getting their systems back to normal after what's turning into one of the most crippling cyber attacks to hit a British retailer in years.
An apology that feels... a bit late?
Stuart Machin (their chief exec) has issued one of those corporate "we're really sorry" statements that companies wheel out when they're in deep trouble. He claims they're "working day and night" to fix things. I mean, I'd hope so! It's been nearly two weeks!
The exact words from the big boss: "We are working day and night to manage the current cyber incident and get things back to normal for you as quickly as possible. Thank you from me and everyone at M&S for all the support you have shown us. We do not take it for granted and we are incredibly grateful."
Look, I get it. Tech disasters happen. But my sister-in-law works at one of teir smaller branches and texted me last night saying the staff are completely in the dark. "Management tells us nothing," she wrote. "Just smile and apologize to angry customers all day."
When did this nightmare begin?
Cast your mind back to Monday, April 21st. That's when this whole disaster kicked off. Customers first noticed something was wrong when contactless payments suddenly stopped working. Then click-and-collect orders went haywire.
By Friday, things had gotten so bad they pulled the plug entirely on their website and app. No online orders AT ALL. In 2024! My mum's birthday cake order vanished into the digital ether, leaving me scrambling for a last-minute replacement from the corner shop. Thanks for that, M&S.
Empty shelves and missing Colins
The horror.
If you're hoping to grab one of those iconic Colin the Caterpillar cakes anytime soon... good luck. They're among the casualties of this tech meltdown, along with bananas and fish, apparently. My friend Jenny went in specifically for a Colin yesterday for her son's birthday and came out with a sad-looking alternative from the bakery section that cost her £4 more. Poor kid.
The retailer has admitted to "pockets of limited availability" in stores because they've had to take systems offline. Translation: empty shelves and disappointed customers.
I understand from someone who works at their HQ (we were at uni together back in 2012) that availability should improve "over the coming days" but they still have no actual timeline for when online orders will return. Not exactly reassuring, is it?
So who's behind this mess?
Apparently, an infamous criminal gang called "Scattered Spider" is the likely culprit. These guys have been causing absolute havoc for the past 18 months and specialize in ransomware attacks—basically holding data hostage until companies pay up.
Some M&S staff have claimed the systems were "held to ransom by a criminal gang," though the company hasn't officially confirmed this. They've called in the big guns—the National Crime Agency and National Cyber Security Centre—to help sort out the mess.
The retail apocalypse spreads...
M&S isn't the only one having a terrible week. The Co-op (you know, the ones with those 2,000+ grocery stores and 800 funeral homes) has also reported hacking attempts and shut down part of their IT system.
They sent a letter to staff on Tuesday saying they'd "taken proactive steps to keep our systems safe." At least their stores are still operating normally, and they claim no customer data has been compromised. For now.
I remember back in 2018 when a similar attack hit a friend's company... they ended up paying something like $50K in Bitcoin to get their systems back. Wonder if M&S is facing the same horrible choice right now?
For now, if you absolutely need your M&S fix, you can still shop in-store (contactless is working again, thank god) or order through Ocado. Just... maybe don't count on finding everything on your shopping list.
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