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Medium

Marks & Spencer Hit by Ransomware Attack, Outages Reported

British retail giant Marks & Spencer (M&S) experienced a ransomware attack that caused widespread disruption, including to its contactless payment system and online ordering.

Key points

  • Ransomware attack caused widespread disruption.
  • Contactless payment and online ordering systems affected.
  • Breach detected on April 18, 2025.

Connected intelligence

Signal brief

Follow the organization, likely method and potential impact to explore connected Shadow Tier intelligence.

02

Likely method

Ransomware

Threat source not confirmed

03

Potential impact

Potential operational disruption

Availability

Published
Apr 18, 2025
Updated
Jun 26, 2026
Confidence
Medium
Evidence
5 sources

Structured assessment

Signal analysis

This analysis groups the signal by industry, likely incident action and impacted security area. It helps compare this signal with other published signals without treating the labels as final determinations.

Threat source

Threat source not confirmed

Watch ransomware, endpoint compromise and business interruption exposure.

Business impact

Potential operational disruption
Impact area
Availability

Mentioned entities

MarksandspencerMarksSpencer HitRansomware AttackOutages Reported BritishSpencerM&SThreatScattered SpiderFebruary and

Quick context

Questions about this signal

What happened in this signal?

British retail giant Marks & Spencer (M&S) experienced a ransomware attack that caused widespread disruption, including to its contactless payment system and online ordering. The breach was detected on April 18, 2025. Threat actors known as 'Scattered Spider' are believed to be responsible, having reportedly breached M&S as early as February and stolen the Windows domain's NTDS.dit file.

When was this signal reported?

Shadow Tier lists Apr 18, 2025 as the signal date.

Which organization is connected to this signal?

Marksandspencer is the organization connected to this public signal.

Explore Marksandspencer
Which attack pattern is relevant?

This signal is connected to current ransomware incidents based on its reported incident context.

Explore current ransomware incidents