M&S 'cyber incident' still impacting contactless payments and collections (2025)

Marks and Spencer continues to deal with the fallout of a ‘cyber incident,’ which disrupted contactless payments and Click and Collect across UK stores.

M&S apologised for a ‘cyber incident’ which is continuing to affect stores, and disrupted payments throughout Easter weekend.

In a new post on Instagram today, M&S said customers can continue to shop online and in-store, but ‘there may be some changes which may inconvenience you over the coming days.’

‘In particular, we are currently not processing contactless payments and there is disruption to the collection of Click and Collect orders in our stores,’ the post said.

In a post on Instagram this afternoon, they said that had been ‘managing’ the incident and were sincerely sorry for the effect on shoppers.

Contactless payments were up and running briefly before crashing again, Metro understands.

M&S said previously it continues to take steps to secure its network and maintain services, but did not specify what those were or what the temporary changes it made were.

They have reported the problems to theNational Cyber Security Centre and hired cybersecurity experts to investigate further.

Chief executive Stuart Machin wrote in a statement on Instagram: ‘To protect you and the business, it was necessary to temporarily make some small changes to our store operations, and I am sincerely sorry if you experienced any inconvenience.

‘Importantly, our stores are still open, and our website and app are operating as normal. There is no need for you to take any action at this time, and if the situation changes, we will let you know.

‘We have been working hard with the best experts to manage this, and I want to thank them and my colleagues for their hard work.’

Some customers were unhappy with the perceived lack of communication, with one complaining on X she had gone into town pointlessly as she was unable to pick up her parcel and calling it a ‘complete failure’.

A customer service rep responded: ‘Please do not travel unless you’ve been notified, via email, from us. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused.’

Several customers praised the company for the response in store, however.

One singled out staff at the Team Valley retail park in Gateshead, saying there was an ‘exceptional young lady greeting each and every customer yesterday. Example set for many other organisations – owning the issue, taking the issue off customers, guiding customers and providing alternatives. Well done.’

Others praised the employees in Kingston, Swindon Orbital, Shrewsbury, and Basildon Mayflower for being across the situation.

Jake Moore, global cybersecurity adviser at internet security firm Eset, said: ‘This highlights the significant impact cyber attacks can have in the public domain.

‘Many ransomware attacks are dealt with behind the scenes which can make people think the problems are eroding but when customers are directly affected, the knock-on effects are far more widely noted.

‘Luckily, it seems no customer data has been taken in the attack but this situation widens the reality that card-only payments may not yet be the answer in a time when cyber attacks are just as prevalent as they’ve ever been.’

Before the reason for the outage was revealed, one customer said she tried to return clothing to the Camden, London, store yesterday, but she was told the WiFi is down across the company.

A customer service advisor wrote on X: ‘We are experiencing some technical issues meaning that we cannot accept contactless payments or process click and collect orders.

‘We are really sorry for any inconvenience and hope to resolve these issues soon.’

An M&S spokesperson told Metro yesterday: ‘Our stores are open today but we are experiencing some technical issues meaning that we cannot accept contactless payments or process click and collect orders.

‘We are really sorry for any inconvenience and hope to resolve these issues soon. Our colleagues are on hand in store to help customers however they can.’

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