Co-op apologises to far north shoppers for stock shortages following cyber attack

The Co-op has apologised to shoppers in the far north for the shortage of products in local stores following this week’s cyber attack.

Cybercriminal group DragonForce said it had infiltrated the Co-op's IT systems and stolen a large amount of customer and staff data, including usernames, passwords, and the personal details of approximately “20 million members”.

A Co-op spokesperson said: "All our stores are open and trading. However, due to the sustained malicious attempts by hackers to access our systems, we have taken proactive steps to keep our systems safe, which is temporarily impacting our colleagues' ability to carry out their duties and the number of deliveries we can make to our stores.

“This means that some of our stores may not have all of their usual products available, and we would like to say sorry to our members and customers if this is the case in their local store. We are working around the clock to reduce disruption and resume deliveries.“

The cybercriminals claim the hack is more extensive than the Co-op initially stated, providing evidence of infiltrated IT networks and stolen data.

The supermarket had initially played down the issue, claiming there was "no evidence that customer data was compromised”.

However, the Co-op eventually admitted that hackers had accessed the data of a "significant number" of past and present members.

DragonForce also claims to have obtained the data of 20 million Co-op members and also claims to be behind the ongoing attack on M&S and a failed attempt to hack Harrods.

Reports suggest that the hackers, possibly linked to the Scattered Spider network, used "social engineering" tactics to trick IT help desk staff into resetting passwords to gain access.

The Co-op added: "We would like to thank our colleagues, members, customers, and suppliers for their understanding during this time."