The Co-operative Group is on track to make a ‘full recovery’ from April’s catastrophic cyber security attack
That’s the upbeat message from the retail giant’s group CEO Shirine Khoury-Haq, following April’s catastrophic cyber security attack.
The Manchester-headquartered company, which has over 7,000 stores across the UK, was forced to shut down its IT systems after it was targeted by hackers.
The attack on the Co-op came just a week after it was widely reported that Marks and Spencer (M&S) was dealing with an attack of a similar nature.
Khoury-Haq, who became the first female chief executive of the business in 2022, said: “Thanks to the work of our fantastic colleagues, we are making significant progress towards a full and complete recovery from the recent cyber attack on our Co-op.
“While there is still work to do to unwind the operational and technical impacts of the actions we had to take to block the criminals, our systems are now stable, our food stores again have more of the products our customers want and all our businesses are continuing to serve our member-owners.
“We are all grateful to our members-owners, clients and customers, for their patience over what has been a really difficult time.”
The Co-op is continuing to investigate the incident in conjunction with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the National Crime Agency (NCA) and have put in place enhanced security measures.
Khoury-Haq, who was included in BusinessCloud’s 2024 Northern Leaders list, said she’ll be ‘forever thankful’ to all the supportive messages she’d received.
She said: “Teams across our Co-op have worked day and night to recover – and our technology and information security colleagues are true superheroes.
“What they have done for us, our partners, our peers, our members and our customers in the face of a sustained and highly sophisticated attack was nothing short of heroic.
“The same goes for all of our colleagues. They have gone above and beyond every day to serve our members and customers, and their teamwork and leadership has been exemplary.
“You always learn lessons in difficult times and we are coming out of this stronger and more effective than before.
“Finally, I must acknowledge our partners and suppliers for bearing with us, while showing such support and understanding to my colleagues and to me.
“You really find out who your friends are at times like these and we are so lucky to have all of you. We have all held hands and moved forward together.
“Most of our recovery work from now on will be behind the scenes.”