M&S betting on customer patience as cyber-attack threatens to ruin 2025’s strong start

Marks & Spencer was enjoying a strong start to 2025 thanks to a fashion revival and the warm spring weather. That has now been seriously undermined as the retailer scrambles to deal with disruption caused by a massive cyber-attack it first revealed a week ago.At a time when M&S – alongside most big retailers – are pushing more automation on its customers and workers, industry insiders say the retailer’s staff have been forced to return to pens, paper and clipboards to check stock in stores as internal systems have been put on hold.Every second counts now, for M&S’s bottom line and for its reputation. Shoppers report problems with the use of gift cards in stores while thousands of orders made on or after 23 April have been cancelled

M&S pauses deliveries of some food items to Ocado after cyber-attack

Marks & Spencer has been forced to pause deliveries of some packaged food items to the online grocery site Ocado as the high street stalwart continues to battle the consequences of a cyber-attack that began a week ago.The latest issue is understood to affect a small number of items listed on Ocado, which is co-owned by M&S, which halted all orders through its M&S.com website and apps on Friday. M&S did not confirm the number of items affected but said it had worked with Ocado and its suppliers “to minimise any disruption to the small proportion of the range delivered through our network to Ocado”.The disruption caused by the hack – and uncertainty over when it will end – has wiped more than £500m off the stock market value of M&S in the past week as experts said it had clearly suffered a cyber-attack on a huge scale

Self-service tills: a bleeping pain or brilliant? | Letters

Thank you, Hilary Freeman, for catching and coining the central movement which is sickening us all: “the slow erosion of human contact that heralds the dehumanisation of yet another society” (Hell is not other people – it’s being stuck in the ninth circle of an automated telephone service, 22 April).We need it, we will die without it. For Freeman, it comes with the introduction of ATMs to Tuvalu; for me, it’s the self-checkout tills of the Co-op around the corner. I used to chat to Brenda. I can’t do it now, and something dies inside me

What are ‘nudification’ apps and how would a ban in the UK work?

The children’s commissioner for England is calling for “nudification” apps to be banned to prevent them generating sexual imagery of children. But what are they and would a ban work?Advances in artificial intelligence software have paved the way for the emergence of “nudification” tools, which are becoming easier to find on social media or search engines.These are apps and websites that produce deepfake nude images of real people using generative AI. This can involve removing clothes, getting an image to move suggestively, or pasting a head on to a naked body. The results often look highly realistic

Exeter suspend coaches Hunter and Hepher after heavy Gloucester defeat

Exeter’s disastrous season has hit a new low with two coaches, Rob Hunter and Ali Hepher, suspended by the chairman, Tony Rowe, a day after their 79-17 defeat by Gloucester.Rowe could be seen laying down the law to the squad in the aftermath of Sunday’s capitulation, in which the Chiefs shipped 13 tries, and has acted swiftly with the long-standing director of rugby Rob Baxter stepping into a frontline coaching role until the end of the season.Hunter was promoted to the role of head coach only last month but described the thrashing by Gloucester as his “worst day as a coach” while Hepher was in charge of the attack. The record defeat by Gloucester was a 12th from 15 Premiership matches for the two-time champions this season, leaving them in ninth spot with only Newcastle below them.It is hard to see either Hunter or Hepher returning to their roles after a review into the defeat on Sunday, as well as the miserable campaign, has been completed but Rowe said: “No final decision regarding the club’s coaching structure going forward has been made, and it would be improper to make any further comment until all internal procedures have been completed

Andreeva and Gauff advance before Spain power outage halts play

Mirra Andreeva has spent the past two years of her life outperforming most teenagers that have ever picked up a tennis racket in the 21st century, yet on a chaotic, surreal Monday inside Caja Mágica, she briefly returned to her roots. During the final change of ends of her fourth-round match against the Ukrainian qualifier Yulia Starodubtseva, as she served for a comfortable victory, she learned of the power outage that had ravaged Spain, Portugal and many nearby countries, ultimately forcing play to be postponed in Madrid.As matches across the tournament grounds had already come to a halt, the two players were informed that they could play out the subsequent game, but there was a catch: the live electronic line calling system was no longer functioning and there were no line umpires to call upon. They would have to play as if they were back on the junior circuit, calling their own lines with only the umpire there to intervene. Naturally, Andreeva began to feel the pressure