Co-op restocking issues

Author
Discussion

Rufus Stone

Original Poster:

9,490 posts

69 months

Saturday 10th May
quotequote all
Good grief, it's like 2020 again. laugh I grabbed the last bottle of milk in my local this morning!

Down to a cyber attack apparently. Anyone know any more?

The speed at which everything collapses once some technology fails is somewhat worrying. scratchchin

Cats_pyjamas

1,678 posts

161 months

Saturday 10th May
quotequote all
The Wife's Dad was an area manager (retired two months ago). Believe this affects all fresh produce from being restocked for whatever reason, it must be crippling for the business.

don'tbesilly

15,133 posts

176 months

Saturday 10th May
quotequote all
M&S is the same, went to my local ‘Simply Food’ earlier in the week and it was clear they were experiencing similar.

ChevronB19

7,364 posts

176 months

Saturday 10th May
quotequote all
Other shops are available.

Rufus Stone

Original Poster:

9,490 posts

69 months

Saturday 10th May
quotequote all
Cats_pyjamas said:
The Wife's Dad was an area manager (retired two months ago). Believe this affects all fresh produce from being restocked for whatever reason, it must be crippling for the business.
I bet. They likely would have sold a load of BBQ food today.

Red9zero

8,697 posts

70 months

Saturday 10th May
quotequote all
Our Co-Op is normally pretty sparse on stock, but they have hardly anything now. No fresh fruit or veg, no meat, eggs, milk or bread. I think they run pretty close to the bone anyway, but they may as well close up shop at the moment. On the other hand, the village shop is very busy laugh

jet_noise

5,865 posts

195 months

Saturday 10th May
quotequote all
ChevronB19 said:
Other shops are available.
Not in some parts.
Apart from corner shops Skye residents (& tourists!) have at least a 70 mile journey to find an alternative. Local social media paints a somewhat vexed population.

M1AGM

3,351 posts

45 months

Saturday 10th May
quotequote all
The zebra scanners are not working so the systems dont know whats being brought in and whats being sold, so stock control is being done manually. With thousands of products its an almost impossible task to manage, particularly from the central distribution points.

But the problems go further, I know that M&S have had problems with payroll for example.

Quite why it is taking so long to resolve is the big question. This is not normal hacking per se.

Gareth79

8,243 posts

259 months

Saturday 10th May
quotequote all
M1AGM said:
Quite why it is taking so long to resolve is the big question. This is not normal hacking per se.
It's ransomware, there are multiple problems. If you decide you aren't going to pay up then you need to rebuild the systems *from scratch* without any potentially affected computers being involved. Even if you think you know how the hackers gained access you don't really know how far they got into systems, you could rebuild one section of the business but they have control of a separate section which is connected in a way you forgot about, and then they come back a few months later and take it all down again. So you need to rebuild both pessimistically, and also hardening what you are installing so that if they are still in the network it's protected as much as you can.

M1AGM

3,351 posts

45 months

Saturday 10th May
quotequote all
Gareth79 said:
M1AGM said:
Quite why it is taking so long to resolve is the big question. This is not normal hacking per se.
It's ransomware, there are multiple problems. If you decide you aren't going to pay up then you need to rebuild the systems *from scratch* without any potentially affected computers being involved. Even if you think you know how the hackers gained access you don't really know how far they got into systems, you could rebuild one section of the business but they have control of a separate section which is connected in a way you forgot about, and then they come back a few months later and take it all down again. So you need to rebuild both pessimistically, and also hardening what you are installing so that if they are still in the network it's protected as much as you can.
I’m IT and do this kind of mitigation for a living. Immutable backups and threat detection architecture, done correctly, mitigate outages like this down to hours or at worst a day or two. So its not a normal hack unless both M&S and Co-Op have serious failures internally regarding their IT security policies and procedures and have no mitigation strategy, which I find hard to believe.

Gas1883

1,361 posts

61 months

Saturday 10th May
quotequote all
Took full loads into Biggleswade / castlewood co-op distribution centres this week so no supply issues , we went into local coop shop this morning & shelf’s we’re fully stocked .

Gareth79

8,243 posts

259 months

Saturday 10th May
quotequote all
M1AGM said:
Gareth79 said:
M1AGM said:
Quite why it is taking so long to resolve is the big question. This is not normal hacking per se.
It's ransomware, there are multiple problems. If you decide you aren't going to pay up then you need to rebuild the systems *from scratch* without any potentially affected computers being involved. Even if you think you know how the hackers gained access you don't really know how far they got into systems, you could rebuild one section of the business but they have control of a separate section which is connected in a way you forgot about, and then they come back a few months later and take it all down again. So you need to rebuild both pessimistically, and also hardening what you are installing so that if they are still in the network it's protected as much as you can.
I’m IT and do this kind of mitigation for a living. Immutable backups and threat detection architecture, done correctly, mitigate outages like this down to hours or at worst a day or two. So its not a normal hack unless both M&S and Co-Op have serious failures internally regarding their IT security policies and procedures and have no mitigation strategy, which I find hard to believe.
If a server or other critical machine is taken down by ransomware and you restore from a backup then it will probably just happen again. The very fact it happens at all means something is wrong. Restoring and installing Norton probably won't be enough.

Otherwise, what do you think has happened to each other than a "normal hack" which they were not adequately protected from? IT admins abducted? biggrin

OldGermanHeaps

4,586 posts

191 months

Saturday 10th May
quotequote all
Our 2 local co-ops and asda have had bare shelves for most of last year, its an absolute joke. Barely noticed a difference during this attack.

tangerine_sedge

5,617 posts

231 months

Saturday 10th May
quotequote all
M1AGM said:
I’m IT and do this kind of mitigation for a living. Immutable backups and threat detection architecture, done correctly, mitigate outages like this down to hours or at worst a day or two. So its not a normal hack unless both M&S and Co-Op have serious failures internally regarding their IT security policies and procedures and have no mitigation strategy, which I find hard to believe.
The bits in bold seem to be contradictory statements hehe

I can very much believe that people have plans in place, and even architecture to support it, but actually having it recently tested is often a different matter. I can believe that even the most ardent company could fail like this...

markbigears

2,445 posts

282 months

Saturday 10th May
quotequote all
It’ll be that pesky Thomas Gabriel again

Gas1883

1,361 posts

61 months


Full load into farm foods , so should be plenty of stock on shelf’s today ( sun 11 th) , not that 99% on here was lower themselves to shop in a farm foods .
I’ll give you a shout when I get a John Lewis / Waitrose load .

alangla

5,540 posts

194 months

Gas1883 said:

Full load into farm foods , so should be plenty of stock on shelf’s today ( sun 11 th) , not that 99% on here was lower themselves to shop in a farm foods .
I’ll give you a shout when I get a John Lewis / Waitrose load .
The trolleys look like Farmfoods, but why are there so many Amazon trailers in the background?

Gas1883

1,361 posts

61 months

alangla said:
Gas1883 said:

Full load into farm foods , so should be plenty of stock on shelf’s today ( sun 11 th) , not that 99% on here was lower themselves to shop in a farm foods .
I’ll give you a shout when I get a John Lewis / Waitrose load .
The trolleys look like Farmfoods, but why are there so many Amazon trailers in the background?

There different yards , im in the farmfoods yard , Amazon is the next door building / yard

Gas1883

1,361 posts

61 months


I’m in farmfoods yard ( Severn beach )

Baroque attacks

5,622 posts

199 months

tangerine_sedge said:
M1AGM said:
I’m IT and do this kind of mitigation for a living. Immutable backups and threat detection architecture, done correctly, mitigate outages like this down to hours or at worst a day or two. So its not a normal hack unless both M&S and Co-Op have serious failures internally regarding their IT security policies and procedures and have no mitigation strategy, which I find hard to believe.
The bits in bold seem to be contradictory statements hehe

I can very much believe that people have plans in place, and even architecture to support it, but actually having it recently tested is often a different matter. I can believe that even the most ardent company could fail like this...
Yup, they will have plans, they’ll make it sound jazzy too, a playbook.

They will have tested those plans until the plans say changing something in prod then they’ll just have assumed that bit will go fine.


Or even better, bits will be outsourced and they’ll rely on the contract