Marks & Spencer has paused staff hiring through its careers site as it battles to recover following a cyber attack.

M&S's careers page advises potential employees they can't apply at present

Source: M&S website

M&S’ careers page advises potential employees they can’t apply at present

Marks & Spencer’s online careers homepage carries the message: “Sorry you can’t search or apply for roles right now, we’re working hard to be back online as soon as possible”.

According to The Telegraph, which first reported the development, there were 232 roles open in offices, stores and warehouses as of April 22.  No vacancies are now displayed, in what is a temporary measure.

An M&S spokesperson said: “While we proactively manage the cyber incident, we are temporarily pausing some of our normal processes so we can continue to work hard on offering the best M&S for our customers and colleagues. Job adverts will be up again in due course.”

The recruitment suspension is one of a raft of problems which have piled on M&S since it was targeted by cyber criminals almost a fortnight ago. The retailer had to stop taking contactless payments for a time, click-and-collect was disrupted and the retailer has stopped trading online for the time being.

Agency staff working at M&S’ Castle Donington distribution centre have been told to stay at home, and food product availability has been affected in some branches.

M&S is working with the Metropolitan Police, National Crime Agency and National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to try and defeat the criminals responsible for the attack.

This week the Co-op also came under attack from cyber criminals, forcing it to shut down parts of its IT systems.

Following the attack on M&S, the NCSC has urged retailers to assess and upgrade their cyber crime response capabilities.

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