Uk Retail Giant Co-op Confirms Hackers Stole All 6.5 Million Customer Records

The main executive of U.K. unit conglomerate nan Co-op connected Wednesday said that hackers had stolen nan individual information of each of nan company’s customers during an April cyberattack. 

Co-op Group CEO Shirine Khoury-Haq told BBC News that nan hackers copied nan company’s personnel database of 6.5 cardinal members, but that nan Co-op unopen down its web earlier nan hackers could fastener up its systems pinch ransomware.

The members’ information includes names, addresses, and interaction information.

The retailer’s web shutdown subsequently resulted successful wide soul disruption crossed its U.K. backmost offices and market stores.

The breach astatine nan Co-op successful April was portion of a broader hacking run targeting nan U.K. unit sector, which besides saw the theft of an unspecified magnitude of customer data from Marks & Spencer and an attempted cyberattack connected Harrods. The cyberattacks were attributed to Scattered Spider, a collective of mostly young hackers that usage deception strategies to instrumentality companies’ IT helpdesks into granting them entree to their network.

Earlier successful July, U.K. authorities arrested 4 group for allegedly having links to nan unit cyberattacks, including a 20-year-old woman, 2 men aged 19, and a younker aged 17. The 4 are accused of hacking, blackmail, and participating arsenic a personnel of an organized crime group.

Since nan cyberattacks, nan hackers reportedly moved connected to target nan hose and proscription industry, arsenic good arsenic insurance companies — sectors that shop immense amounts of consumers’ data.

It’s not known really overmuch nan breach astatine nan Co-op will costs it. According to one unit manufacture news outlet, nan Co-op did not person cybersecurity security astatine nan clip of nan hack, which could consequence successful nan institution incurring dense financial costs.