Harrods is latest British retailer to be hit by cyber attack

LONDON (Reuters) -London department store Harrods said on Thursday hackers had attempted to break into its systems, the third high-profile cyber attack on a UK retailer in two weeks, following incidents at Marks & Spencer and the Co-op Group.

British companies, public bodies and institutions have been hit by a wave of cyber attacks in recent years, costing them tens of millions of pounds and often months of disruption.

"We recently experienced attempts to gain unauthorised access to some of our systems," a statement from Harrods, owned by the Qatar Investment Authority, said.

"Our seasoned IT security team immediately took proactive steps to keep systems safe and as a result we have restricted internet access at our sites today."

It said all its sites, including its flagship Knightsbridge store in London, H beauty stores and airport stores remained open and customers could also continue to shop online.

The Harrods and Co-op incidents appear to have had less of an impact than the attack on M&S, one of Britain's best known retailers, which has paused taking clothing and home orders through its website and app for the last seven days.

The attack on M&S has come during a bout of warm weather in Britain, when retailers would normally report an increase in demand for summer clothing, fresh food and drinks. Availability of some food products has also been affected in some stores.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is working with both M&S and the Co-op, while the Metropolitan Police's Cyber Crime Unit and the National Crime Agency (NCA) is investigating the M&S attack.

Technology specialist site BleepingComputer, citing multiple sources, said a ransomware attack that encrypted M&S's servers was believed to have been conducted by a hacking collective known as "Scattered Spider".

(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Susan Fenton)