Co-op boss reveals all its members had data stolen in April cyber attack

Co-op chief executive Shirine Khoury-Haq today confirmed all 6.5 million of its members had their data stolen in cyber attacks that occurred in April.

Speaking to the BBC this morning Khoury-Haq revealed that no financial data or transaction data got stolen in the attack, but names, addresses and contact information of Co-op members were lost.

Co-op members help to run the company and get paid a share of profits as well as receiving shopping perks.

Shirine Khoury-Haq said: “It hurt my members, they took their data and it hurt our customers and that I do take personally.

“Early on I met with our IT staff and they were in the midst of it. I will never forget the looks on their faces, trying to fight off these criminals.

“I’m devastated that information was taken. I’m also devastated by the impact that it took on our colleagues as well as they tried to contain all of this.” 

Co-op are now working to restore back-end systems and have partnered with The Hacking Games, a cyber-security recruitment company, in a bid to stop cyber attacks before it is too late.

The group have not revealed how much the hacking will cost them and initially thought the hack would only have a ‘small impact’ on its back office and call centre.

Co-op later confirmed the hackers had “accessed data relating to a significant number of our current and past members”. 

Last week, four people were arrested in connection with the Spring cyber attacks which targeted the three major retailer.