Marks & Spencer tells workers to stay at home as it battles fallout from cyber-attack

Marks & Spencer has been forced to pause deliveries of some packaged food items to the online grocery site Ocado as the high street stalwart continues to battle the consequences of a cyber-attack that began a week ago.

- Sarah Butler

The latest problem is understood to affect a small number of items listed on Ocado, which is co-owned by M&S, which halted all orders through its M&S.com website and apps on Friday. M&S did not confirm the number of items affected but said it had worked with Ocado and its suppliers "to minimise any disruption to the small proportion of the range delivered through our network to Ocado".

The disruption caused by the hack - and uncertainty over when it may end - has wiped more than £500m off the stock market value of M&S in the past week as experts said it had suffered a cyber-attack on a huge scale. The company has apologised to shoppers for the inconvenience caused by the attack, which will hit its online clothing and homeware sales amounting to almost £3.8m a day on average.