UK retail chain ‘The Works’ hit by a Cyberattack forcing it to shutdown stores

UK retail chain ‘The Works‘ announced that it has shutdown multiple stores after the firm was hit by a cyber attack that involved unauthorized access to its network. The company has 530 stores in the UK and Ireland, that is known for sale of books, stationery, art, toys, and craft materials with a yearly revenue of about $300 million.

However, the nature of the cyberattack is yet to be revealed with certain assumptions around interrupted replenishment deliveries, extended online order fulfillment times, and has affected the safety of payments.

The announcement doesn’t go into many details about the nature of the incident, but it appears to have interrupted replenishment deliveries, extended online order fulfillment times, and compromised the safety of payments.

The Works managing and handling the cyber incident

The Works has switched to external debit and credit payment processors to address the situation and has claimed the same to be safe. The company said the same on their notice of the cybersecurity incident.

“All debit and credit card payment data are processed securely outside the Group’s systems, via accredited third-party networks and, therefore, there is no risk that this payment data has been accessed improperly.”

The firm also added that the hackers haven’t accessed any of their client payment data as per their investigation of the incident so far. Since the investigations are only begun we can’t rule out the fact that the customer data could have been compromised.

Investigation done by the firms along with the forensic experts can revela further details on the state of the incident. According to The Works, the ongoing situation is “unlikely to have a material adverse impact on its forecasts or financial position”, confirming that there will be minimum hindrance on their normal operations.

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