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 in Machynlleth are apparently turning up at local farms in search of food due to lack of produce at Co-op https://www.cambrian-news.co.uk/news/cyber-attack-people-turning-up-at-farms-as-machynlleth-co-op-shelves-remain-bare-792434
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Co-op stores in Sheffield, Badenoch, Dunfermline and many other places are apparently running out of produce - it's not possible to keep up with the local media reports but they're basically bored reporters get sent out to photograph half empty fridges.
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This ITV News report linking the Co-op and M&S breaches to SIM swapping is not accurate, no source given. https://www.itv.com/news/2025-05-12/sim-swap-fraud-rises-by-1000-as-criminals-exploit-two-factor-authentication
They also have a report today saying Co-op stores are restocked, which is also not accurate - that one is sourced from Co-op, but obviously doesn’t stack up to looking in Co-op stores.
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If anybody is wondering, all of Marks and Spencer's Palo-Alto GlobalProtect VPN boxes are still offline, 3 weeks later. Pretty good containment method to keep attackers out.
Co-op's VDE environment is still down, too.
https://cyberplace.social/@GossiTheDog/114399017367179104 -
M&S confirm my toot from 3 days ago that a significant amount of customer and staff data was stolen. They’ve known for weeks but opted not to tell anybody. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62v34zv828o
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Re the Co-op Group breach, Co-op say home addresses of customers were exfiltrated (it was the membership database). This one dates back to my May 2nd toot upthread re home addresses - at the time, they didn't specify home addresses.
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Co-op Group have 5 open jobs left, with nothing posted for 11 days.
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Co-op's AGM is this weekend, and M&S yearly results and investor contact are next week.
Gonna be awkward for different reasons, e.g. Co-op is member (customer) owned, so the people's data Co-op had stolen are effectively the shareholders and are invited.
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The Channel Islands Coop, which is different to Co-op Group, has been able to restock shelves by moving away from Co-op Group for supply distribution and moving to local suppliers. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3d4xvg3x1do
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The Grocer reports Nisa and Costcutter are running out of fruit & veg, fresh meat and poultry, dairy products, chilled ready meals, snacks and desserts.
Nisa and Costcutter are supplied by Co-op Wholesale, which is dependent on Co-op Group.
“It’s really poor. I feel bad for them but what makes it worse is their hush-hush mentality about it. There’s no proper level of communication and we get random updates.”
Co-op Wholesale claim there are no problems. https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/news/nisa-and-costcutter-hit-by-stock-shortages-amid-co-op-cyberattack/704393.article
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A look at supplies in stores today, after Co-op told ITV yesterday that stores were restocked
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Co-op Group have told their suppliers that "systemic-based orders will resume for ambient, fresh, and frozen products commencing Wednesday 14 May". They say forecasting system will still be impacted.
https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/news/co-op-to-get-systems-back-on-track-after-cyberattack/704425.article
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Harrods say they are not asking customers to do anything differently at this point.
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Financial Times report Marks and Spencer expect to claim £100m on their cyber insurance, the maximum allowed, suggesting losses probably more. https://www.ft.com/content/723b6195-1ce7-4b5f-94f5-729e9152c578
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Co-op Group say they have exited containment and begun recovery phase https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/may/14/co-op-cyber-attack-stock-availability-in-stores-will-not-improve-until-weekend
Marks and Spencer are still in containment
If you want figures for your board to set expectations in big game ransomware incidents, Co-op containment just over 2 weeks, M&S just over 3 weeks so far - recovery comes after.
In terms of external assistance, Co-op have Microsoft Incident Response (DART), KPMG and crisis comms. M&S have CrowdStrike, Microsoft, Fenix and crisis comms.
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The threat actor at Co-op says Co-op shut systems down, which appears to have really pissed off the threat actor. This was the right, and smart, thing to do.
While I was at Co-op we did a rehearsal of ransomware deployment on point of sale devices with the retail team, and the outcome was a business ending event due to the inability to take payments for a prolonged period of time. So early intervention with containment was the right thing to do, 100%.
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Co-op Group recruitment looks like it is starting again, first new roles in two weeks posted. https://hcnq.fa.em2.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/sites/CX/jobs
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Marks and Spencer say food distribution to their stores is returning to normal. It follows Co-op's announcement yesterday that food and drink distribution will begin to return to normal from the weekend. https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/uks-ms-says-food-availability-improving-every-day-2025-05-15/
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27 new jobs at Co-op added today, and it's only midday. So recruitment was definitely paused for two weeks and now active again.
