Staff at the Co-op are being ordered to keep cameras on during remote work meetings, and to verify attendees, as the c-store specialist deals with an ongoing cyber attack.

In an internal email sent to the grocer’s 70,000 staff, workers are being urged to be vigilant as the Co-op’s IT teams work overtime to ensure that the hackers who attacked them yesterday aren’t inside of their systems, according to ITV.

“Don’t record or transcribe Teams calls,” the instructions say.

The orders come after the Co-op disclosed yesterday that it had closed down some of its IT systems in response to a cyber attack.

The news comes as Marks & Spencer continues to struggle to deal with a major ransomware attack and it is unknown if the two incidents are linked.

The Co-op yesterday said it was taking “proactive measures” to fend the attack off, and admitted the attack had a “small impact” on its call centre and back office systems.

However, the internal email suggests that the Co-op has now shut off all remote access to its systems and no internal applications which require a virtual private network (VPN) can be accessed from home.

Workers instead are being told to go to a Co-op location if they need access to work tools and are being urged not to post any sensitive information into Teams chats and to report any suspicious messages or emails.

Co-op says that the cyber attack is under control and said that all of the measures it’s taking are “proactive”.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed yesterday that they were investigating the ongoing attack on M&S, which has done severe damage to the supermarket giant.

It was today revealed by The Telegraph that M&S has been forced to freeze new hires as a result of the ongoing cyber security issue. The brand has also been forced to stop accepting orders on its website and the issue has also had a knock-on effect to its warehousing, leading to low stock levels in many stores.

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