UK retailer M&S puts cyberattack cost at $400m as disruptions continue

According to Marks & Spencer, the British retailer will lose about 300 million pounds ($403 million) if it is stopped from processing online orders and leaves store shelves empty.

The disruption from the “highly sophisticated and targeted cyber attack,” which was first reported over the Easter weekend, is expected to last until July, according to the company’s business&nbsp, update (PDF) released on Wednesday.

Because the business, known as M&amp, S, had to halt online shopping, the company’s online sales of food, home, and beauty products were “heavily impacted.”

After M&amp, S’s automated stock systems were turned off, the attack on one of the biggest names on the high street in the United Kingdom forced the company to use pen and paper to move billions of pounds of fresh food, drinks, and clothing.

That slack-laden food shelves and unhappy customers, which hurt sales.

The large online clothing store M&amp, S is still offline a month later, and the attack has caused the company’s stock market to lose more than a billion pounds.

Chairman Archie Norman criticized the attack’s timing because M&amp, S, which has been working toward a comprehensive turnaround strategy since 2022, was beginning to show promise.

However, he said, “Events have a way of turning you on your backside in business life just as you think you’re on a good streak.”

M&amp, S, which employs 65, 000 people and operates 565 stores, predicted that the hack would result in lost operating profit of about 300 million pounds ($403 million) in the year ending in March 2026, despite its efforts to reduce those costs through insurance, cost control, and other measures.

The company’s CEO, Stuart Machin, stated that the company’s main focus is on recovering and restoring its systems and operations.

We will overcome this incident in better shape, Machin said, “but this is a bump in the road.” He declined to provide any information about the attack or its potential perpetrators.

The company reported earlier this month that hackers had accessed customer personal data, which might have included names, emails, addresses, and birthdates.