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M&S parts ways with CTO after cyber attack
M&S chief digital and technology officer Rachel Higham steps back from her role in the wake of the April 2025 cyber attack on the retailer's systems.
Marks & Spencer chief digital and technology officer Rachel Higham is to leave the retailer, in the wake of a ransomware attack on its core systems from which it is still recovering.
Higham, who had been in post for less than two years, will be replaced by current retail director Sacha Berendji, according to M&S, which said Higham plans to take a career break.
In an internal memo obtained by specialist retail magazine The Grocer, M&S chief exec Stuart Machin said that having steered the team through “a challenging six months” Higham herself had taken the decision to step back.
“Rachel has been a valued part of the leadership team since joining, building a strengthened digital and technology function, playing a key role over recent months, and laying foundations for the future,” Machin wrote.
“Rachel has been a steady hand and calm head at an extraordinary time for the business, and we wish her well for the future.”
The Scattered Spider attack on M&S crippled the retailers’ systems at Easter after IT teams were forced to take emergency action and pull systems offline.
The high street stalwart was forced to contend with gaps on shelves due to problems with its stock systems, and the suspension of various online services such as click-and-collect. Similar attacks befell Co-op and Harrods at the same time, although these are not thought to have been as severe in their impact.
In M&S’ case, although most of the disrupted services are now back up and running, the financial impact will be long lasting, with the retailer previously saying it expects to be out-of-pocket to the tune of at least £300m.
Traumatic experience
Managing incident response in the wake of a high-profile cyber attack is an intense and difficult job, and IT and security leaders on the frontlines frequently find themselves having to shoulder a certain amount of blame, although there is no indication that Higham and M&S have parted ways amid any negative sentiment.
Nevertheless the psychological impact of experiencing such an incident – particularly when a gang such as Scattered Spider, which has on occasion been known to resort to violent threats against its targets – is not to be underestimated.
Indeed, burnout has become a perennial problem among CISOs and security pros, not helped by the widening scope of both the threat landscape, and the responsibilities linked to the role.
Writing in Computer Weekly in July, Tim Grieveson, CSO at ThingsRecon, said: “The CISO and security leader role has been stretched as they become accountable and responsible for more assets, processes and capabilities critical for business operations.
“The more critical cyber security becomes to business continuity, customer trust, and regulatory compliance, the more the CISO role is being morphed beyond recognition, and we’re approaching breaking point,” he said.
Describing the impact of the M&S cyber attack before a parliamentary committee in July, the retailer’s chairman Archie Norman said: “It’s fair to say that everybody at M&S experienced it.
“Our ordinary shop colleagues [were] working in ways they hadn’t worked for 30 years, working extra hours just to try to keep the show on the road. Let aside our tech colleagues, for a week, probably, the cyber team had no sleep.
“It’s not an overstatement to describe it as traumatic,” said Norman.
Computer Weekly contacted M&S seeking further comment but the organisation had not responded at press time.
Timeline: M&S, Scattered Spider and ShinyHunters
- 22 April 2025: A cyber attack at M&S has caused significant disruption to customers, leaving them unable to make contactless payments or use click-and-collect services.
- 24 April: M&S is still unable to provide contactless payment or click-and-collect services amid a cyber attack that it says has forced it to move a number of processes offline to safeguard its customers, staff and business.
- 25 April: M&S shuts down online sales as it works to contain and mitigate a severe cyber attack on its systems.
- 29 April: An infamous hacking collective may have been behind the ongoing cyber attack on M&S that has crippled systems at the retailer and left its ecommerce operation in disarray.
- 30 April: A developing cyber incident at Co-op has forced the retailer to pull the plug on some of its IT systems as it works to contain the attack.
- 1 May: Co-op tells staff to stop using their VPNs and be wary that their communications channels may be being monitored, as a cyber attack on the organisation continues to develop.
- 1 May: Harrods confirms it is the latest UK retailer to experience a cyber attack, shutting off a number of systems in an attempt to lessen the impact.
- 2 May: The National Cyber Security Centre confirms it is providing assistance to M&S, Co-op and Harrods as concerns grow among UK retailers.
- 7 May: No end is yet in sight for UK retailers subjected to apparent ransomware attacks.
- 13 May: M&S is instructing all of its customers to change their account passwords after a significant amount of data was stolen in a DragonForce ransomware attack.
- 14 May: Google’s threat intel analysts are aware of a number of in-progress cyber attacks against US retailers linked to the same gang that supposedly attacked M&S and Co-op in the UK.
- 20 May: Cold chain services provider Peter Green Chilled, which supplies the likes of Aldi, Sainsbury’s and Tesco, has been forced to halt operations after succumbing to a ransomware attack.
- 4 June: A threat group is using voice phishing to trick targeted organisations into sharing sensitive credentials, according to Google. (Cybersecurity Dive)
- 11 June: So-called Black Swan events expose the blind spots in even the most sophisticated forecasting models, signaling a need to rethink how businesses, and those investing in them, quantify and prepare for cyber risk.
- 13 June: The recent spate of cyber attacks on UK retailers has to be a wake-up call to build more cyber resilience into digital supply chains and fortify against social engineering attacks.
- 17 June: Following a series of high-profile attacks on prominent retailers and consumer brands, a group of criminal hackers appears to be expanding their targeting to the insurance sector.
- 20 June: The UK’s Cyber Monitoring Centre has published its first in-depth assessment of a major incident, reflecting on the impact of and lessons learned from cyber attacks on M&S and Co-op.
- 26 June: US authorities have unsealed charges against 25-year-old hacker Kai West, aka IntelBroker, accusing him of being behind multiple cyber attacks.
- 27 June: Multiple reports are emerging of cyber attacks on airlines – Google Cloud’s Mandiant believes them to be linked.
- 2 July: Australian flag carrier Qantas is investigating significant data theft of personal information for up to 6 million customers after a third-party platform used by its call centre was compromised.
- 2 July: A developing cyber attack at Australian airline Qantas that started at a third-party call centre is already being tentatively attributed to the same gang that hit UK retailers. Find out more and learn about the next steps for those affected.
- 8 July: The government should extend ransomware reporting mandates to businesses to help gather more intelligence and better support victims, says M&S chairman Archie Norman.
- 9 July: Australian flag carrier begins notifying millions of individuals after a cyber attack on a call centre, confirming that while financial and passport details are safe, a significant volume of other personal information was compromised.
- 10 July: Police have made four arrests in connection with a trio of cyber attacks on UK retailers Marks & Spencer, Co-op and Harrods.
- 14 July: French luxury goods retailer LVMH has disclosed multiple cyber attacks in 2025 so far, and their impact is now spreading to the UK as a new incident affecting Louis Vuitton comes to light.
- 16 July: Microsoft warns users over notable evolutions in Scattered Spider's attack playbook, and beefs up some of the defensive capabilities it offers to customers in response.
- 16 July: Co-op chief executive Shirine Khoury-Haq has revealed that all the personal data of all 6.5 million of its members was compromised in the April 2025 cyber attack on its systems.
- 24 July: Cleaning products manufacturer Clorox fell victim to a Scattered Spider social engineering attack two years ago – it blames its IT helpdesk provider, Cognizant.
- 30 July: CISA, the FBI, NCSC and others have clubbed together to update previous guidance on Scattered Spider's playbook, warning of new social engineering tactics and exploitation of legitimate tools, among other things.
- 7 August: Air France - KLM alerts authorities of a data breach in which threat actors were able to get away with names, email addresses, phone numbers, and more. (Dark Reading)
- 7 August: ShinyHunters is back, with low-tech hacks that nonetheless manage to bring down international megaliths like Google, Cisco, and Adidas. (Dark Reading)
- 11 August: Computer Weekly gets under the skin of an ongoing wave of ShinyHunters cyber attacks orchestrated via social engineering against Salesforce users.
- 12 August: ReliaQuest researchers present new evidence that firms up a potential link, or outright partnership, between the ShinyHunters and Scattered Spider cyber gangs.
- 18 August: A campaign of voice-based social engineering attacks targeting users of Salesforce’s services appears to have struck HR platform Workday.
- 19 August: Millions of people are supposedly affected by a breach at Allianz Insurance arising via attacks on Salesforce (Dark Reading).
- 2 September: Jaguar Land Rover reports a cyber attack has ‘severely disrupted’ its vehicle production and retail operations, recalling similar attacks on other prominent British brands this year.
- 5 September: The recent cyber attack on Jaguar Land Rover is keeping workers out of plants as possible attack group identity becomes public.
- 10 September: Carmaker Jaguar Land Rover revealed that data was stolen in the cyber attack that began on 31 August, as its production line continues to be affected.
- 9 September: Qantas executives are to take a pay cut in the wake of the recent cyber attack on the airline's systems (Dark Reading).
