M&S warehouse staff told to 'stay home' amid ongoing cyber incident

British retailer Marks & Spencer told agency staff at its central England distribution centre to stay at home on Monday, after it stopped taking online orders following a cyber incident last week.

M&S told agency staff who usually work at its Castle Donington distribution centre near Derby not to come in, according to a person familiar with the situation. Agency staff are used when the warehouse is at its busiest.

About 200 people were told not to come in, said Sky News, which first reported the story.

An M&S spokesperson said on Monday that there was no further update on the cyber incident, following a statement on Friday that announced the company was stopping orders from its website and app as part of its "proactive management" of the incident, which first hit payment systems on April 20th.

The chain, which has about 1,000 stores across Britain, makes around one third of its clothing and home sales online. It has said it is working with experts to resolve the issue.

Investec analyst Kate Calvert said that the longer it took for online sales to resume, the greater the impact would be on M&S. "There will be a short-term profit impact, without a doubt," she said.

Nathaniel Jones, VP of security at cyber security group Darktrace, said the fact that M&S had taken systems offline suggested it was likely a ransomware-related event.

"Retailers are increasingly targeted because they combine valuable customer data with complex, interconnected systems," he said.

M&S, which sells upmarket groceries as well as clothing and home products, posted bumper Christmas sales in January and is due to publish full-year results on May 21.

Shares in the company, one of the best-known names on Britain's shopping streets, were trading down 2% on Monday, having lost as much as 8% since April 22, when it announced that it had been grappling with a cyber incident for several days.