An Indian IT company, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), is currently in the process of conducting an internal investigation to determine its potential involvement as the gateway for the cyber-attack on Marks & Spencer, according to BBC News. TCS has been providing services to M&S for over ten years, making this situation quite the head-scratcher. M&S recently disclosed that the hackers responsible for causing chaos within the retailer’s systems had managed to infiltrate via a “third party” – a company working in conjunction with M&S – rather than directly breaching their systems. Both M&S and TCS have decided to stay mum on the matter, leaving many questions unanswered.
What’s particularly intriguing is that the Financial Times, the first to break the story, mentioned that the investigation hopes to wrap up by the end of the month, though details on when TCS initiated the probe are a bit fuzzy. Customers have been unable to make purchases on the M&S website since late April, with the retailer assuring a gradual return to normalcy in their online services over the upcoming weeks, albeit with some disruptions expected to persist until July. M&S anticipates that this cyber-attack will take a £300m chunk out of their profits for the year, leaving many wondering about the financial repercussions and the overall impact on the company.
The police are currently honing in on a notorious bunch of English-speaking hackers called Scattered Spider, as revealed by the BBC. This same group is suspected of targeting other big names like the Co-op and Harrods, but it appears that M&S took the brunt of the blow. TCS boasts a massive workforce of over 607,000 employees worldwide and holds the title of the lead sponsor for three prestigious marathons – New York, London, and Sydney. Their website proudly showcases their collaboration with M&S on Sparks, the retailer’s customer reward scheme. In 2023, the dynamic duo bagged the Retail Partnership of the Year award at the Retail Systems Awards, cementing their successful partnership in the public eye.
Stuart Machin, the chief executive of M&S, recently addressed the cyber-attack, labeling it as a highly sophisticated and targeted strike that led to a brief period of chaos. During a media call, he skillfully dodged a question regarding whether a ransom was paid as part of the resolution process, leaving many curious minds hanging. With TCS having an impressive client roster that includes the likes of the Co-op, easyJet, Nationwide, and Jaguar Land Rover, it remains to be seen if their internal investigation will delve into the Co-Op hack as well. The interconnected web of cyber-attacks and their implications on major corporations like M&S and TCS is a stark reminder of the ever-looming threat of cybercrime in the digital age.
