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(Bloomberg) -- The UK supermarket chain Co-op said hackers were able to access and extract customer data from one of its systems during a recent cyberattack.
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“The accessed data included information relating to a significant number of our current and past members,” the company said in a statement Friday. “This data includes Co-op Group members’ personal data such as names and contact details, and did not include members’ passwords, bank or credit card details, transactions or information relating to any members’ or customers’ products or services with the Co-op Group.”
The statement cames as a cybercrime gang took credit a disruptive campaign of attacks targeting Co-op and at least two other British retailers over the last two weeks.
A spokesperson for the gang, known as “DragonForce,” said in an interview with Bloomberg News that it and its partners were behind incidents targeting Marks & Spencer, Co-op and Harrods.
The group’s motivation was to extort money from their victims, the spokesperson said. They also claimed to have stolen customer data. The admission is the first confirmation the attacks were linked and carried out by the same group.
Marks & Spencer first announced it had been targeted in a “cyber incident” on April 22. Some of the company’s systems were infected with DragonForce’s ransomware, which encrypts files stored on computers so they cannot be used, Bloomberg News previously reported.
In the aftermath of the attack, M&S stopped accepting contactless payments and shut down online orders. Transactions have yet to resume. There have also been reports of gaps on shelves as the company struggles with availability for some items.
In a post on X Friday, M&S Chief Executive Officer Stuart Machin apologized for the disruption, saying the company is working “day and night” to resolve the issue.
On April 30, British supermarket chain Co-op said it had detected attempts to gain unauthorized access to some of its systems, which it said had a “small impact” on some back office and call center services. On Friday, the retailer said it was investigating along with Uk authorities. “We are continuing to experience sustained malicious attempts by hackers to access our systems,” Co-op said, in a statement. “This is a highly complex situation.”