Coop apologises to Caithness shoppers after hackers steal personal details

A Coop spokesperson told the John O’Groat Journal that they apologise to Caithness shoppers for the lack of products in local stores after this week’s cyber attack.

Cyber criminal group DragonForce said it has infiltrated the Coop's IT systems and stolen a large amount of customer and employee data, including usernames, passwords, and the personal details of approximately “20 million members”.

The Coop spokesperson told the Groat: "All our stores are open and trading.

“However, due to the sustained malicious attempts by hackers to access our systems, we have taken proactive steps to keep our systems safe, which is temporarily impacting our colleagues' ability to perform their roles and how many deliveries we can make to our stores.

“This means that some of our stores might not have all of their usual products available, and we would like to say sorry to our members and customers if this is the case in their local store. We are working around the clock to reduce disruption and resume deliveries.

The cyber criminals claim the hack is more extensive than the Coop initially stated, providing evidence of infiltrated IT networks and stolen data. The supermarket had initially downplayed the issue, claiming there was "no evidence that customer data was compromised."

However, the Coop eventually admitted that hackers had accessed data belonging to a "significant number" of past and present members. DragonForce further claims to have obtained the data of 20 million Coop members and also states they are behind the ongoing attack on M&S and a failed attempt to hack Harrods.

Reports suggest the hackers, possibly linked to the Scattered Spider network, used "social engineering" tactics, tricking IT help desk workers into resetting passwords to gain access.

The Coop added: "We would like to thank our colleagues, members, customers, and suppliers for their understanding during this time."