Co-op apologies after hackers access ‘significant’ amount of customer data

Co-op has apologised after it revealed hackers had accessed and extracted a “significant number” of its data from its past and current members.

The compromised data included names and contact details, but not passwords or any financial information such as bank or credit card details or transactions, it said.

The group, which has over 2,000 stores and more than 800 funeral parlours, confirmed it was working with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the National Crime Agency (NCA) to investigate the cyberattack.

It comes days after it was reported that Co-op had been forced to shut down some of its IT systems after discovering a hack attempt on some of its back-office systems and call centre services last weekend.

A Co-op spokesperson said: “We are continuing to experience sustained malicious attempts by hackers to access our systems.

“We have implemented measures to ensure that we prevent unauthorised access to our systems whilst minimising disruption for our members, customers, colleagues and partners.

“As a result of ongoing forensic investigations, we now know that the hackers were able to access and extract data from one of our systems.

“We appreciate that our members have placed their trust in our Co-op when providing information to us. Protecting the security of our members’ and customers’ data is a priority, and we are very sorry that this situation has arisen.”

On Thursday (1 May), it emerged that Harrods had become the latest retailer to fall victim to a cyber attack.

A Harrods spokesperson said: “We recently experienced attempts to gain unauthorised access to some of our systems.

“Our seasoned IT security team immediately took proactive steps to keep systems safe, and as a result, we have restricted internet access at our sites today.”

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