UK retailer M&S puts cyberattack cost at $400m as disruptions continue

This incident is a bump in the road, and we will come out of this in better shape,

Machin said

But in business life, just as you think you’re onto a good streak, events have a way of putting you on your backside,

he said

We are nervous that customers will have their long-term habits changed,

says Jonathan Pritchard at the broker Peel Hunt

This has been a challenging time,

Stuart Machin, the retailer’s chief executive, said in a call with analysts on Wednesday

We’re now focused on recovery and customers should be able to shop in our stores as normal,

he said,

Unable to get into our systems by breaking through our digital defences, the attackers did try another route resorting to social engineering and entering through a third party rather than a system weakness,

he told reporters

This cyber attack highlights just how damaging things like this can be,

Rumbold said over email

We will use this window of disruption to accelerate our technology transformation plans; the plans we laid out a year ago. In fact, we will condense the two-year plan into just six months,

CEO Stuart Machin said during an earnings presentation on Wednesday

Our current estimate before mitigation is an impact on Group operating profit of around £300m for 2025/26,

the company said in a statement alongside its annual results

We will now draw a line under this and move on to business as usual,

he said

There's still a big unknown regarding any potential fines on Marks and Spencer from the Information Commissioner's Office, which enforces data protection regulation

in Britain, ... noted Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at trading group AJ Bell

Paul Foster (bowls)deputy Director

We are looking at the group that is publicly known as Scattered Spider, but we've got a range of different hypotheses and we'll follow the evidence to get to the offenders

Paul Foster, head of the National Crime Agency's national cyber crime unit, told the BBC

It has been challenging, but it is a moment in time, and we are now focused on recovery, with the aim of exiting this period a much stronger business

Chief executive Stuart Machin said

In Fashion, Home & Beauty, online sales and trading profit have been heavily impacted by the necessary decision to pause online shopping, however stores have remained resilient,

Marks said in a statement