Harrods hit with cyber attack

Harrods has become the latest retailer to fall victim to a cyber attack, following attacks at M&S and Co-op.

The luxury department store has been engaged in efforts to defend itself against a cyber attack, Sky News reported.

Although further details of the apparent attack were unknown on Thursday afternoon, one shopper told the news service that he had not been able to pay for a purchase earlier that day.

Following an enquiry by Sky News, 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.”

The spokesperson added: “Currently, all sites including our Knightsbridge store, H beauty stores and airport stores remain open to welcome customers. Customers can also continue to shop via harrods.com.

“We are not asking our customers to do anything differently at this point, and we will continue to provide updates as necessary.”

Harrods is said to be engaging specialists to help investigate and fix the issue.

It comes after M&S was hit by a cyber attack last o, with hacking group Scattered Spider named in connection with the ongoing attack.

Co-op also faced a cyber attack earlier this week, with some of its back-office systems and call centre services breached over the weekend.

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