The UK branch of the Dutch supermarket chain Spar has closed hundreds of stores after suffering an “online attack.” The company has confirmed Register.
“This has not affected all SPAR stores in northern England,” a Spar spokesperson told us. “However, some stores have been affected in the past 24 hours and we are working to resolve this situation as quickly as possible.”
LancsLive, a local news site in Lancashire, Report “Total and widespread IT outages” hit the chain stores over the weekend, as well as today’s “security breaches”.
The publication reported that James Hall & Co, a food distributor serving 600 Spar stores, was also malfunctioning-the company’s website only provided Error 20 codes, indicating widespread network failures.
“At James Hall, we are currently aware of an online attack on our IT systems. This has affected approximately 330 SPAR stores in northern England in the past 24 hours, and we are working hard to resolve this situation as quickly as possible,” it told LancsLive.
“It is currently affecting the ability of stores to process credit card payments, which means that many SPAR stores are currently closed to shoppers or only accept cash payments. We apologize for the inconvenience caused to customers, and we are working to resolve the situation as soon as possible,” the statement added Say.
It is not clear whether these incidents were part of a ransomware attack or a catastrophic IT crash caused by other reasons.
Spar has 2,600 stores in the UK and, according to its website, has an annual turnover of 3 billion pounds. This Dutch-owned chain has 13,000 stores around the world. Most of these are locally owned franchises, and some are located in independent gas stations. Therefore, closing these means that some gas stations will also be closed.
The Esso brand gas station in Ulverston, Cumbria was forced to close, and its operator claimed on Facebook that it was Spar’s fault:
Similarly, Lawrence Hunt & Co Ltd, another Spar franchise operator, used Facebook to announce its closure yesterday, “due to a total network interruption affecting the cash register, credit card and back-end systems.”
Spar is not the only major UK retailer that has suffered a cyber attack recently.October Tesco Suffered a two-day power outage After an unidentified malicious person “attempted to interfere” with its website.A few weeks later, some pranksters Hacked the Angling Direct website, To direct people searching for fishing gear to websites with completely different forms of fishing gear.
Another British retailer Furniture Village Also suffered a “cyber attack” in JuneSince these companies process and store the detailed information of millions of Britons, it is not surprising that they are now the line of fire for criminals hoping to steal and cause havoc online. ®
