The “cyber incident” which saw Marks & Spencer unable to accept contactless payments or handle click and collect orders at the beginning of the week is ongoing, the company has confirmed.
While it seemed the issue was on the way to being resolved on Tuesday, it appears to have worsened again with the company now unable to accept contactless transactions across its store network.
At the start of the week the retailers emailed customers in Ireland apologising for a “cyber incident” and saying it was “working hard to resolve” the issue.
At the time, the company stressed that neither customers or staff needed to do anything as their data had not compromised.
It also told its customers that contactless transactions had been restored although it warned that there were still issues with click and collect orders.
In an update published on its Instagram account on Thursday morning, the company said it had yet to resolve the issues.
“You can continue to shop in our stores, on our website and through our app but there may be some changes which may inconvenience you over the coming day,” the statement said.
“In particular, we are currently not processing contactless payments and there is disruption to the collection of click and collect orders in our stores.”
The company said that serving its customers and protecting its business was its priority and stressed that it was “working incredibly hard to restore our services”.
Marks & Spencer concluded the statement by saying it was “really sorry for any inconvenience and we’ll continue to keep you updated”.
Cybersecurity experts have noted the incident highlights the significant impact cyber attacks can have in the public domain.
Other than the statements on social media the company has been tight-lipped about what has been happening behind the scenes. Experts said ransomware attacks are typically dealt with behind the scenes.
Shares in the company dipped on Thursday and by lunchtime they were down 1.3 per cent.
When contacted, Marks & Spencer confirmed that all its outlets in the Republic were also impacted.
Earlier this week, when the disruption first emerged, the retailer said it was working with cybersecurity experts to investigate and manage the incident and had reported it to Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre.
Jake Moore, global cybersecurity adviser at internet security firm Eset, said it appeared that no customer data had been taken in the attack.
