You may have noticed that the shelves in the Coop are a bit empty at the moment. The reason for this lies in the recent national Coop Group cyber attack, by a cyber criminal group who call themselves ‘DragonForce’.
The Coop have told us that they are working around the clock to resolve the issue.
They said that they expect to see steady improvements each day as Coop systems come back online across the UK.
Speaking in the local media, Mark Cox, Chief Executive of the Channel Islands Coop, said that stock issues are not a direct result of the cyber attack, but are a proactive step to try and keep their systems safe.
In the meantime, the Channel Islands Coop are actively securing alternative supplies—both locally and from other partners—to keep operations running as smoothly as possible. They have said that they are trying hard to ‘minimise disruption and maintain the high standards the Members expect’, which they say remains their top priority.
The Coop told us that they ‘truly appreciate the patience and support of Members and customers during this period’ and that they are ‘committed to restoring full functionality as quickly as possible’ and will keep Islanders updated on any key developments.
Some Coop Members have been concerned about security of their personal data, but the Coop have reassured them that their personal data is safe and not connected to the problems experienced in the UK.
DragonForce were also responsible for a similar recent national attack on Marks and Spencer.
In an email to customers this week, Marks and Spencer’s Operations Director, Jayne Wall, said: "To proactively manage the incident, we immediately took steps to protect our systems and engaged leading cyber security experts. We also reported the incident to relevant government authorities and law enforcement, who we continue to work closely with.
“Unfortunately, the nature of the incident means that some personal customer data has been taken, but there is no evidence that it has been shared. The personal data could include contact details, date of birth and online order history. However, importantly, the data does not include useable card or payment details, and it also does not include any account passwords.
“You do not need to take any action, but you might receive emails, calls or texts claiming to be from M&S when they are not, so do be cautious. Remember that we will never contact you and ask you to provide us with personal account information, like usernames, and we will never ask you to give us your password. To give you extra peace of mind, next time you visit or login to your M&S.com account on our website or app, you’ll be prompted to reset your password.
As a result of the current disruption at both the Coop and M&S, other supermarket chains in the Island are also currently experiencing a high turnover of stock, resulting in many empty shelves across the Island’s stores.
Due to the lack of product availability, we have decided to skip our planned price comparison survey for this week.
However, our volunteers will be surveying grocery prices again on Wednesday, 28 May, by when we hope everything will be back to normal.
In the meantime, consumers need to be patient and shop sensibly, while our local supermarkets do their best to resolve the situation.
Fuel and heating oil surveys took place as normal this week and, as ever, you can compare the latest prices at Prices.je
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