M&S hit by Scottish lawsuit over data breach
M&S is understood to be facing a multi-million-pound court action by Scottish customers whose personal data was believed to have been taken in the high street giant's recent cyber attack.
Besides having to deal with major disruption to its supply chain, M&S has also had to admit hackers gained information on its customers. That has led to a class action suit over the loss of personal customer information -- which could result in huge compensation payouts, Glasgow Live reported.
Law firm Thompsons Solicitors is to launch the class action suit on behalf of an unknown number of customers with senior parter Patrick McGuire telling the publication that it 'condemns the retailer for exposing clients to potential fraud due to inadequate protection of their data – an obligation mandated by law.'
He said: 'M&S pride themselves on their customer service and reliability but in this most important area they have failed their customers completely.
'We have a situation here where one of the most famous retailers in the UK have allowed criminals to pillage the personal details of hundreds of thousands of Scottish customers.
He added: 'We have been inundated by Scots M&S clients who have been caught up in this online heist and are contacting Thompsons given our experience in this area. I think this will be the biggest data theft case we have ever been involved in.'
A spokesperson for M&S said: "Importantly, the data does not include useable payment or card details, which we do not hold on our systems, and it does not include any account passwords.
He added: 'There is no evidence that this data has been shared.'
M&S's loyalty programme has 18 million members and the retailer has asked customers to reset their account passwords. It has also warned customers that they might receive bogus emails, calls or texts claiming to be from the company.
More than £1.2 billion has been wiped off the market value of M&S since it was crippled by hackers three weeks ago. The company is still not taking online orders, has been left with empty shelves at some branches, and is reported to be losing up to £3.5 million a day.
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