BY YUSUPH KILEO
THE retailer, which has 2,600 locations in the UK, said it has been hit by what it describes as an “online attack”, leaving some stores without the ability to take payments by card.
A cyberattack has forced supermarket chain Spar to close some of its UK stores.A cyber attack has hit more than 300 Spar convenience stores across the North of England with some forced to close their doors.
“There has been an online attack on our IT systems which is affecting stores ability to process card payments, meaning that several Spar stores are currently closed. We apologize for any inconvenience, we are working as quickly as possible to resolve the situation,” Spar UK said in a tweet sent to customers asking why branches of the store in areas of the country, including Yorkshire and Lancashire, were closed.
Facebook post by Spar Oswaldtwistle posted — “James Hall & Company are currently aware of an online attack on it’s IT system.
This has not affected all SPAR stores across the North of England, but a number have been impacted over the past 24 hours and we are working to resolve this situation as quickly as possible”
The attack on Sunday targeted James Hall & Company in Preston, Lancashire, which operates Spar’s tills and IT systems.
Shops have not been able to take card payments with those remaining open taking cash only.
The National Cyber Security Centre and Lancashire Police are investigating the incident.
A spokesman for the former said: “We are aware of an issue affecting Spar stores and are working with partners to fully understand the incident.”
A Spar spokesman said: “We are working to resolve this situation as quickly as possible.
This isn’t the first time a supermarket chain has been brought to its knees by a cyber attack.
In July hackers caused 500 Co-op stores in Sweden to close as tills and self-service machines were taken down.
Similarly, it was the supermarket’s IT supplier that was hit with ransomware.
The question for James Hall is now the one all cyber attack victims dread — shall we pay criminals to get our shops back online?
But of course for the hundreds of thousands of Spar customers affected by the hack the more pressing question is when will their local stores open again.
“The NCSC has published guidance for organisations on how to effectively detect, respond to, and resolve cyber incidents.”
It’s currently unclear what sort of “online attack” has forced the stores to close — The website of the company was also down.
We strongly call on all organisation to be on alert during this festival sesson.
(Writer, Mr.Yusuph Kileo is a cyber security and digital forensics expert from Tanzania).