Harrods has reassured customers its stores remain open, as it confirmed it had become the latest retailer to be targeted by a cyberattack.
Harrods said it had “experienced attempts to gain unauthorised access to some of our systems”, after Sky News reported it had been forced to shut down some of its core IT systems.
At least one customer had reported being unable to pay for goods as a result of the shutdown, Sky News said.
“Our seasoned IT security team immediately took proactive steps to keep systems safe and as a result we have restricted internet access at our sites today,” a Harrods spokeswoman said.
“Currently all sites including our Knightsbridge store, H Beauty stores and airport stores remain open to welcome customers. Customers can also continue to shop via harrods.com.
“We are not asking our customers to do anything differently at this point and we will continue to provide updates as necessary,” she said.
It comes as M&S nears the end of week two in an ongoing battle to regain control of its systems from hackers who have wreaked havoc on its operations since the Easter bank holiday weekend.
Read more: Marks & Spencer cyberattack: the reasons, damage and lessons
In his latest apology to customers, M&S CEO Stuart Machin today said: “We are working day and night to manage the current cyber incident and get things back to normal for you as quickly as possible.”
The Co-op also revealed this week it had been targeted. The convenience retailer shut down some of its IT systems in a bit to fend off an attack on 30 April.
The attacks this week were a “wake-up call” for retailers, said Jonathan Lee, director of cybersecurity at Trend Micro.
“Retailers are an attractive target for hackers and uniquely exposed to a high level of cyber risk,” Lee said.
“They’re targeted because of the large amounts of valuable personally identifiable data (PII) they process and the integral nature of business uptime that makes ransomware and extortion attacks particularly disruptive. The industry’s heightened cyber risk level lies in operations spanning multiple sites, each with their own IT solution, extensive third-party supply chain dependencies, high staff turnover and a reliance on legacy systems.”
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