Marks and Spencer‘s website has gone down overnight, leaving customers unable to browse online.
The retailer, which has been forced to suspend online orders for weeks in the aftermath of a devastating cyber-attack, saw its regular homepage replaced with a holding screen late on Wednesday night.
People visiting the website this morning have been greeted with the message: ‘Sorry you can’t browse the site currently. We’re making some updates and will be back soon.’
The website is now back online after the retailer undertook ‘some overnight updates’.
A spokesperson for M&S said: ‘Our website is open for browsing. As we work to get things back to normal for our customers we are doing some overnight updates.’
It comes less than a day after the retailer warned it faced a £300million hit from the cyber-attack, which took place a month ago over the Easter weekend.
The British high street giant halted orders on its website and saw empty shelves in the aftermath.
Customer personal data, which could have included names, email addresses, postal addresses and dates of birth, was also taken by hackers in the attack.
Stuart Machin, chief executive of M&S, told reporters that hackers gained access to the company’s IT systems through a third party after ‘human error’.
Visitors to the Marks and Spencer website are being greeted with a holding page which says ‘Sorry you can’t browse the site currently. We’re making some updates and will be back soon.’
M&S was hit by a devastating cyber-attack over the Easter weekend a month ago. Pictured: An M&S store in Oxford Street, London
The boss said he has been in touch with other industry bosses to discuss hacks, with rivals the Co-op and Harrods also targeted with cyber attacks in recent weeks.
He added: ‘We didn’t leave the door open, this wasn’t anything to do with under-investment.
‘Everyone is vulnerable. For us, we were unlucky on this particular day through some human error.’
The retailer revealed on Wednesday morning that online sales and profits in its fashion, home and beauty business have been ‘heavily impacted’.
Disruption to online operations is set ‘to continue throughout June and into July as we restart, then ramp up operations’, it said.
However, it indicated that shoppers will see improvements over the coming weeks.
Mr Machin suggested around 85 per cent of its online operations are likely to be restored soon, as the company focuses on certain parts of its operations first.
He added that clothing and home sales have been ‘resilient’ in stores in recent weeks.
Empty shelves inside an Marks & Spencer store in Paddington, London, on April 29
M&S chief executive Stuart Machin has revealed hackers accessed personal customer data
Meanwhile, food sales were affected by reduced availability but the business stressed this is ‘already improving’.
The group has also reported ‘additional waste and logistics costs’ after switching to manual processes following the attack.
M&S said the incident is likely to drag its group operating profits down by around £300 million this year, but it expects this to be reduced through cost management, insurance and other reactions.
The company suggested it could reduce the impact of the attack by as much as ‘half’.
Mr Machin said: ‘It has been challenging, but it is a moment in time, and we are now focused on recovery, with the aim of exiting this period a much stronger business.
‘There is no change to our strategy and our longer-term plans to reshape M&S for growth and, if anything, the incident allows us to accelerate the pace of change as we draw a line and move on.
‘This incident is a bump in the road, and we will come out of this in better shape, and continue our plan to reshape M&S for customers, colleagues and shareholders.’
It came as the company reported a higher-than-expected adjusted pre-tax profit of £875.5 million for the year to March, up 22.2 per cent on the previous year.
Empty food shelves at a Marks & Spencer in Cambridge on April 29 after the cyber attack
M&S has faced stock issues following the cyber attack which has left many shelves empty
The group was buoyed stronger profits in its food arm, which saw sales increase by 8.7 per cent to £9 billion over the year.
M&S revenues grew by 6 per cent to £13.8 billion as a whole for the year, as fashion, home and beauty sales grew by 3.5 per cent.
The company is currently undergoing a major transformation programme, which is including changes to its shop estate.
The retailer, which currently has 565 stores, said it plans to have 600 stores by 2028, comprising 420 bigger food stores and 180 full clothing, home and food stores.
It added that the plan is still on track despite the recent disruption.
M&S also said it has accelerated plans to invest in improvements to its technology to now take place over the next six months, after previously indicating it would take two years.
It comes after detectives investigating cyber attacks on UK retailers including M&S, Co-Op and Harrods revealed they were focused on the Scattered Spider crew of English-speaking teenage hackers.
Paul Foster, head of the National Crime Agency’s national cyber crime unit, told the BBC: ‘We are looking at the group that is publicly known as Scattered Spider, but we’ve got a range of different hypotheses and we’ll follow the evidence to get to the offenders.
‘In light of all the damage that we’re seeing, catching whoever is behind these attacks is our top priority.
And Google said last week that those responsible were also targeting US companies, with retailers worldwide now racing to boost their cyber defences.
