‘Just pure chaos’: Inside the hacking meltdown at M&S

A devastating cyber attack has brought the retailer to its knees - and it's still trying to fix the damage, reports Jonathan Prynn

- Jonathan Prynn

Marks & Spencer's bosses have not often enjoyed a rapturous reception when delivering their annual financial results over recent years. But current chief executive Stuart Machin would have been hoping for, if not a round of applause, then certainly some decent headlines after the scores on the doors for the year ending March 29 are delivered to the City and the business media in less than a fortnight's time.

But within a month of the close of a financial year that M&S could hope to celebrate, the high street stalwart was hit by an electronic equivalent of an Exocet missile that has left those hopes in tatters.

At the time of writing, it is three weeks on from M&S's first public admission of what it coyly described as a “cyber incident” that made it necessary “to make some minor, temporary changes” to store operations.

The impact of the devastating attack will surely turn out to be temporaryone would certainly hope it is not permanent - but “minor” it most certainly is not.

The slump in the share price that followed the admission has not yet played itself out: it is down another five per cent at the time of writing, and the loss of market capitalisation since the crisis started is in danger of hitting the £1billion mark.

Customers remain locked out of the online M&S store, which brings in nearly £4 million of revenue a day, and recruitment has been put on hold. This is all significant pain that will inevitably overshadow the otherwise encouraging news about Machin's solid progress in turning round the once ailing blue chip company. And still the end is not in sight.