🔒 Inside the Marks & Spencer Cyberattack: What Went Wrong and What We Can Learn

 

How a trusted UK brand got hacked — and what it means for you.




🏬 Who is Marks & Spencer?

Marks & Spencer (M&S) is one of the UK’s most iconic multinational retailers, founded in 1884. Known for its high-quality clothing, food, and home products, M&S operates hundreds of stores across the UK and internationally, along with a strong digital presence through its e-commerce platform and mobile apps.


🔐 What Happened — The Cyberattack Unfolded

In early June 2025, Marks & Spencer faced a massive cyberattack that disrupted its online ordering system, website, and mobile apps for more than six weeks.

🧨 Attack Method:

  • Initial Entry Point: Suspected phishing email targeting internal IT staff

  • Privilege Escalation: Use of stolen credentials and session hijacking

  • Lateral Movement: Breached backend servers using tools like:

    • 🛠️ Cobalt Strike

    • 🛠️ Mimikatz

    • 🕵️‍♂️ Impacket toolset

  • Payload Delivery: Ransomware or wiper malware suspected (not officially disclosed)

  • Network Impact: E-commerce APIs, cloud databases, and order processing engines were completely shut down.

🎯 Who Was Behind It? What Was the Motive?

The attack is believed to be executed by “Scattered Spider”, a notorious hacker group with links to Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) networks and financially motivated operations.

📌 Likely Motives:

  • Financial Ransom

  • Disruption of critical UK retail services

  • Data extraction of customer and vendor records

However, no official ransom demand has been publicly confirmed.


🛡️ Prevention — How It Could Have Been Avoided

To prevent such attacks, organizations should implement a Zero Trust architecture and layered defense mechanisms:

Security MeasureDescription
🔑 Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)Mandatory for all admin-level accounts
🔍 Regular Threat HuntingDetect lateral movements before damage
🧰 EDR ToolsEndpoint Detection & Response (CrowdStrike, SentinelOne)
🧱 Cloud Firewall (WAF)Web Application Firewall to block malicious traffic
🔄 Security Awareness TrainingPrevent phishing and credential leaks
🗂️ Immutable BackupsEnsure data can be restored securely


📉 Aftermath — M&S Business Status Post-Attack

🛠️ Immediate Actions:

  • Engaged Mandiant and CrowdStrike for forensics

  • Entire online system was rebuilt with hardened infrastructure

  • Added Cloudflare DDoS and WAF protection

  • Started rotating all API tokens and server secrets

💸 Financial Loss:

  • Over £300 million in lost revenue

  • Over 60% drop in daily online orders

  • Shareholders saw a temporary 8% stock dip

🧱 Recovery Steps:

  • Migrated parts of the system to isolated AWS VPCs

  • Introduced IAM role separation and least-privilege models

  • Launched a bug bounty program to identify vulnerabilities.


🔚 Conclusion

The M&S cyberattack is a wake-up call for traditional retail giants entering the cloud-native, digital-first world. Cyber hygiene is no longer optional—it's business-critical. Investing in cybersecurity is not just about compliance—it's survival.

Location: Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

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