M&S cyberattack could be a blueprint for our enemies

Hackers cost the retailer millions of pounds a day but hostile nations are poised to go further by bringing our increasingly interconnected society to a halt, writes Chris Stokel-Walker

- Chris Stokel-Walker

Shoppers looking to top up their Sparks points or pick up their weekly groceries may find things difficult this week at Marks Spencer, which is still reeling from the impact of a cyber incident believed to be a ransomware attack launched against its business last month.

Co-op shoppers may well count their blessings, as we’ve recently learned that the retailer has taken “proactive measures” to mitigate the dangers of its own cyberincursion.

Combined with ever more headlines about high-profile hacks, and even suggestions that cybercrime was behind the recent countrywide power outage in Spain and Portugal – something the countries have denied – it’s easy to think we’re in the throes of a major hacking flurry.

Such a supposition would be correct. The cold, hard reality is that although we’re facing the impact of the attacks at first hand, with bare supermarket shelves and disrupted businesses, when it comes to the problems businesses are facing daily from cybercriminals, this is just a drop in the ocean.

“These are high-profile names so make the headlines, but they are the tip of an iceberg of attacks daily,” says Alan Woodward, professor of cybersecurity at the University of Surrey.

“These serious criminal attacks tend to come in fits and starts, with no obvious pattern,” says Ciaran Martin, a former head of the National Cyber Security Centre, and now a professor at the University of Oxford.

While many have been keen to try to combine the attacks against supermarkets with other issues unrelated to cybercrime, such as the electricity outages in Spain and Portugal, the reality is that there’s often little connection between the individual actions. “I don’t think these particular attacks are linked,” says Woodward. “They’re probably different malware and groups.”