DragonForce Ransomware Cartel are claiming credit for attacks on Marks and Spencer, Co-op and Harrods and say more victim orgs are coming https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-02/-dragonforce-hacking-gang-takes-credit-for-uk-retail-attacks
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People are also taking to social media to post pictures of apparently emptying store shelves.
The Co-op website claims it is down to "technical issues".
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Contactless payment has been fixed at all Co-op Group stores.
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One thing for media covering the Co-op thing - attackers are not impersonating IT help desks to gain access. They’re impersonating *staff* calling in to the IT help desks - they’re different things.
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Co-op Group are redirecting supplies from their urban stores to remote and island locations due to stock shortages.
The article mentions their EDI platform is suffering “technical issues”. https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2025/05/co-op-reroutes-stock/
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I just did a Shodan Safari on Co-op - basically all their Windows and Linux systems in their core DCs at network boundary are down, it's not just EDI. It's been like that for just under a week, prior to that things were still online.
I feel really bad for them as it's a great org. Also their CEO is basically the only one who stood up like this for trans people.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/05/04/ill-protect-trans-people-to-the-end-vows-co-op-boss/
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If you're wondering about Marks and Spencer - I just did a Shodan Safari of their network boundary, Palo-Alto GlobalProtect VPN remote access access is still offline, 15 days later.
Online orders are still not working, and the store stock checker is disabled now.
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Co-op have paused all non-essential products in stores https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2025/05/co-op-non-essential/
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Every detail in this article is wrong. The M&S incident had nothing to do with hybrid working.
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Marks and Spencer’s online shopping is still offline 3 weeks later. It is thought they have lost around £63m so far, excluding IR, BCP and ransom payment costs. https://www.drapersonline.com/news/ms-online-shopping-outage-enters-third-week
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M&S had a significant amount of data stolen btw, but they’ve opted not to tell customers or staff.
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The Grocer reports 4 regional Co-ops, who aren’t part of Co-op Group, are suffering stock shortages as they are supplied by Co-op Group.
They expect customers to start to see availability issues on shelves in the coming days.
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For orgs looking for defence tips for the attacks on UK retailers, this blog from 2022 about the UK teenagers in LAPSUS$ has relevance.
As a plot twist - not documented anywhere online, but LAPSUS$ first attacks in 2021 were against UK high street retailers.
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For anybody wondering what 'dial into the incident response bridge' means, it means they'll literally Teams call into cyber IR bridges as themselves and just extort you to your face. They'll also call CISOs etc. Bad Times at the El Royale.
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Marks & Spencer bureau de change staff are being forced to use pen and paper to serve customers as a result of the cyber attack on the retailer and cannot accept card payment. https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-14696595/Hack-rocks-Marks-Spencer-bureau-change.html
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Co-op Group have provided some more detail about what it’s doing about remote lifeline stores (ones where they’re the main/only retailer on an island):
“From Monday, 12 of the most remote lifeline stores will receive treble the volume of available product, and another 20 lifeline stores will get double the volume.” https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c071e7x80djo
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DragonForce Ransomware Cartel’s portal is back online after a multi week outage. No sign of M&S or Co-op’s data.
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All M&S recruitment is still stopped, 19 days in. https://jobs.marksandspencer.com/
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I think Co-op may have stopped recruitment too, they’re a big employer so usually have hundreds of open positions - currently they have 17, and most close today and the rest in a few days.
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The Record quotes a Co-op worker as saying they are operating at well below 20% of their normal capacity in depots. https://therecord.media/co-op-cyberattack-uk-company-fears-hackers-still-in-system
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Allianz supplies Marks and Spencer's cyber insurance, and will apparently suffer a full tower loss (i.e. it's going to be expensive) https://www.insuranceinsider.com/article/2esiwg4yv6p38pcf2pgxs/lines-of-business/cyber/allianz-leads-cyber-cover-for-m-s-ransomware-attack
