Following cyber attacks on Marks & Spencer and Co-op, Harrods last week became the latest retail victim in the UK.
Harrods said it had ‘restricted internet access at our sites’ following an attempt to gain access to its systems. The retailer continued to operate its online sales and didn’t clarify what the scale of the impact was, but asked customers ‘not to do anything differently at this point’.
A statement from Harrods said: “We recently experienced attempts to gain unauthorised access to some of our systems. Our seasoned IT secutiry team immediately took proactive steps to keep systems safe and as a result we have restricted internet access at our sites today [Thursday 1 May].”
The UK National Cyber Security Centre said it is working closely with organisations that reported attacks to develop a better understanding of the issues.
Ceo Richard Horne explained: “These incidents should act as a wake-up call to all organisations. I urge leaders to follow the advice on the NCSC website to ensure they have appropriate measures in place to help prevent attacks and respond and recover effectively.”
In a blog post over the weekend, the organisation explained how retailers can take steps to mitigate ransomware attacks.
NCSC director of national resilience, Jonathon Ellison and cto Ollie Whitehouse wrote: “Whilst we have insights, we are not yet in a position to say if these attacks are linked, if this is a concerted campaign by a single actor or whether there is no link between them at all.”
