by All 6.5 million members of the cooperative had their data stolen in the cyber attack against the British retailer at the beginning of this year, according to the retailer.
The managing director of the retail and funeral group Shirine Khoury-Haq said that it was “destroyed” by the effects of the attack on workers and members.
At the end of April, the company completed parts of its IT systems after the attack, in which Hacker accessed the members’ personal data and extracted them.
Shortly afterwards, buyers were confronted with empty shelves and problems with payments caused by the consequences of the incident.
It was part of a number of top-class cyber attacks on retailers, with Rival Marks & Spencer being particularly strong by a cyber incident around Easter, which would lead to a 300-million pound goal for its finances.
On Tuesday, the co-op chief confirmed the BBC breakfast that “names, addresses and contact information” were accessed for all members.
Ms. Khoury-Haq told the program: “We know that many of this information are out there anyway, but people will worry and all members should be concerned.
“As soon as we knew what had been taken, we informed our members. We also advised you on what they had to do to protect their information.
“But I am devoted to the ground, I am devastated that the information was recorded.”
She said the hackers created a copy of one of the company’s files, but were unable to attack their platforms and install planned ransomware.
“We found that it happened when the cyber criminals move in our systems, and then we took measures to stop them,” said the boss.
“When we had done that, unfortunately they had created a copy of one of our files, but we held them away from doing something else.
“It meant switching off our systems quite dramatically.
“The good news was that we managed to keep our front lines open – our businesses and funeral companies remained open, but the effects on colleagues, the effects on our business, our members, were significant.”
Last week the National Crime Agency said that four young people were arrested for their alleged participation in the cyber attacks against the cooperative, M&S and Harrods.
The comments came when the cooperative announced a partnership with a social impact business after the attack.
The connection with the hacking games aims to prevent cyber crime by identifying young cyber talents and leading their skills into a positive, ethical career.
The cooperative said that cyber threats developed at an “alarming” speed and emphasized the need for qualified cyber security professionals.
