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The boss of Marks & Spencer has revealed he “went into shock” upon learning about the cyber attack that crippled computer systems at the retailer.
Stuart Machin said he felt anxious when he was first informed late at night about the ransomware attack that hit the FTSE 100 company’s systems last month.
But he insisted the ensuing chaos at the retailer’s stores did not represent a “crisis” and that it was more of “a setback, a bump in the road”.
“I went into shock. It’s in the pit of your stomach, the anxiety. But you have to think: ‘Stuart, you have to lead this, you have to keep a cool head’,” Mr Machin told the Mail on Sunday.
“I don’t know if I was calm. It was a mixture of emotions because I care, I put my life into transforming M&S. “By day three I was going everywhere and talking to everyone. I spoke to every store manager.”
He added: “I wanted to put my energy into our customers, our colleagues, into getting the business on track.”
M&S first revealed last month that it was struggling with the fallout of a cyber attack that had left customers unable to make contactless payments over the Easter weekend.
The attack by hackers demanding a ransom also affected some of the company’s digital stock systems, resulting in empty shelves in some of its stores. Bosses warned that it is expected to wipe £300m from the retailer’s profits.
Shoppers were later also told they could not place orders online temporarily.
Mr Machin said M&S was working urgently to rebuild its computer systems but that restoring online clothes shopping may still take “five or six weeks”.
The incident had led him to accelerate the company’s efforts to overhaul its digital infrastructure, he added, which was originally scheduled to take three years but may now only take “a year and a half”.
He said: “Everyone is way too obsessed with it taking too long. It is quite unfair.
“I have always – when I have given updates – been brutally honest. I have managed expectations because I don’t like going out with false hope.”
He also insisted that M&S was well-prepared for cyber attacks but that ransomware – which often target employees with deceptions that encourage them to click malicious web links or download rogue files – was hard to prepare for.
The company has blamed “human error” for the hack.
“I have learnt everyone is vulnerable. The hackers only need to be lucky once,” Mr Machi added.
M&S warned staff last week that some of their personal data were stolen in a cyber attack. Email addresses and full names were believed to have been taken.