All 6.5m Co-op members had data stolen in cyberattack
Shirine Khoury-Haq said she was 'incredibly sorry' for the attack that resulted in names, addresses and contact information being accessed.
She told BBC Breakfast that 'no financial data, no transaction data' had been compromised but acknowledged that people will be worried and that 'all members should be concerned'. Co-op is owned by its members, who receive rewards when it generates profit and help to make decisions.
The retail group shut its IT systems after the attack, leading to supply and payment issues. It was one of three high-profile cyberattacks in Britain last spring; Marks & Spencer and Harrods were also targeted. Four people have been arrested and were bailed on Wednesday.
Khoury-Haq said: 'I'm devastated that information was taken. I'm also devastated by the impact that it took on our colleagues as they tried to contain all of this.
'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 and protect our members' data and trying to protect our organisation as well. That will never leave me.'
She added: 'We realised it was happening when the cybercriminals started moving around within our systems and that is when we took action to stop them. It meant shutting down our systems quite dramatically. The good news was that we managed to keep our front lines open — our stores and funeral homes stayed open but the impact on colleagues, the impact on our stores, our members, was significant.'
The four people were arrested on July 10: a British 17-year-old and Latvian 19-year-old from the West Midlands, a British 19-year-old from London and a British 20-year-old from Staffordshire.
They were all arrested at their homes on suspicion of blackmail, money laundering, offences linked to the Computer Misuse Act and participating in the activities of an organised crime group, according to the National Crime Agency. The police seized electronic devices from the properties.
M&S was the first of the retailers to be targeted in a cyberattack and was forced to shut a host of systems on Easter Sunday. Its website was shut for six weeks, fuelling a bill that the company put at about £300 million.
On Wednesday the Co-op announced a partnership with The Hacking Games, a business that identifies young people with 'unconventional' cyber talents and coaches them for careers in cybersecurity rather than crime.
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