Warehouse Staff Told to Stay Home After Major Cyber Attack

A worker at the Marks & Spencer e-commerce distribution centre in Castle Donington. Photograph: Darren Staples/Reuters

The British retail giant, Marks & Spencer (M&S), has informed hundreds of agency staff at its main online distribution centre in Leicestershire to stay at home due to a cyber-attack that began a week ago and has affected both stores and its online business.

The company halted all orders through its website and apps on Friday, with website orders remaining on hold for the fourth consecutive day. M&S told 200 agency staff at the Castle Donington site that they were not currently required, following a halt in all online sales.

M&S has apologised to shoppers for the inconvenience caused by the cyber-attack, which will hit its online clothing and homeware sales, amounting to almost £3.8m a day on average. The company has hired cybersecurity experts to investigate and manage the problem and is taking measures to further protect its network to serve shoppers.

The retailer’s website closure followed several days of problems in stores where contactless payments and the collection of online orders were hit from Monday. Contactless payments were restarted late on Thursday, while a separate technical issue affected only contactless payments on Saturday during the busy Easter weekend.

Shoppers reported difficulties with picking up online orders made before the website shut down over the weekend, with some stating that staff at physical stores were ‘brilliant‘ in handling customer inquiries. However, others experienced issues with their orders not showing on their accounts or being unable to collect them due to technical problems.

Security experts have warned shoppers to be cautious of scammers capitalising on the high-profile incident. The longer it takes for online sales to resume, the worse the impact will be for M&S, according to Investec analyst Kate Calvert.