Marks & Spencer (M&S) expects its online operations to be fully restored within the next four weeks as the retailer continues its recovery from a major cyber attack in April.
Speaking at the company’s annual general meeting, CEO Stuart Machin said the company hopes to have the “vast majority” of the incident’s impact resolved by August, the BBC reported.
The attack, which the company has attributed to “human error” and estimated will cost around £300 million in lost profit, forced M&S to halt online sales and has significantly disrupted its supply chain, including operations at its key Castle Donington distribution centre. The breach also resulted in the theft of customer personal data.
The announcement is the latest step in a multi-month recovery process. As ITPro has reported, the crisis first unfolded in April when M&S was forced to suspend all online orders.
M&S later confirmed in May that customer personal data had been compromised, linking the breach to a supply chain partner. By June, the full financial scale of the incident was revealed, with the warning of a £300 million profit hit and continued operational disruption.
While the main e-commerce site for Great Britain has partially resumed service, key functions like click-and-collect and next-day delivery remain offline.
The recovery timeline provides a critical update for a breach that has had a sustained operational and financial impact on one of the UK’s best-known retailers.
M&S fallout may continue beyond planned restoration date
Julius Cerniauskas, CEO of web intelligence firm Oxylabs, told ITPro that the incident highlights the persistent threat of social engineering.
“Investment alone isn’t a silver bullet," he said. "Attackers are constantly evolving their techniques, and social engineering – tricking people rather than systems – is still one of the most effective entry points.”
Cerniauskas noted that while a full operational recovery by August would be a “solid achievement,” the business impact can continue long after technical systems are restored.
"It’s not a question of if you'll be targeted - but when,” he added.
The fallout from the incident may also affect executive remuneration. According to reports from the Evening Standard, chairman Archie Norman confirmed that any drop in performance caused by the attack "will be taken into account with regards to incentive pay".
Norman added that the recovery is progressing, with "new systems coming back" each week.
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