By Charlotte Fisher Levi Winchester
The boss of Marks and Spencer has issued an update on when online orders will fully return after the shop was hit with a cyber attack over the Easter weekend. The supermarket started resuming online orders last month but some services are still not back to normal. Today it was confirmed by the CEO of M&S that the rest of the online operations will return fully by next month. He expects services that are still not fully functioning – such as ordering click and collect or next day delivery – to be fully restored from August. M&S is also still is not delivering to Northern Ireland, the Mirror reports . Speaking to shareholders at the retailer’s annual general meeting, he said: “I’m really hoping by August, the majority of this is behind us, and customers will see the full M&S.” M&S halted orders on its website and saw empty shelves after being targeted by hackers around the Easter weekend, and customer personal data, which could have included names, email addresses, postal addresses and dates of birth, was also taken by hackers in the attack. Stolen data did not include card or payment details. Never miss a story with the MEN’s daily Catch Up newsletter – get it in your inbox by signing up here The retail giant said at the time that 鈥渉uman error鈥 had caused the attack, which is set to cost the firm around 拢300 million. M&S has advised shoppers to take extra caution if they are contacted by someone who claims to be from M&S. In an email to shoppers shortly after the cyber attack, Jayne Wall, operations director at M&S, said: “You do not need to take any action, but you might receive emails, calls or texts claiming to be from M&S when they are not, so do be cautious. “Remember that we will never contact you and ask you to provide us with personal account information, like usernames, and we will never ask you to give us your password.” The cyber attack is expected to cost the company around 拢300 million. Mr Machin previously revealed 鈥渉uman error鈥 from outside the firm allowed hackers to breach its security. He declined to go into detail, but said it involved a 鈥渢hird party鈥. He added: 鈥淭his incident is a bump in the road, and we will come out of this in better shape.鈥 M&S annual profits – before the attack emerged – jumped by more than a fifth to 拢875.5 million, its highest in over 15 years, thanks to its turnaround programme. Other major companies have also been struck by ransomware – a form of malicious software designed to burrow into companies鈥 systems, steal commercially sensitive information, which is then locked, with crooks demanding their victims pay money before handing them the key. The Co-op and Harrods have also been hit recently. Join the Manchester Evening News WhatsApp group HERE