Cyber attackers have stolen a significant amount of customer data from The Co-operative Group, a British retail and banking company. The hackers, who call themselves DragonForce, claim to have accessed data relating to 20 million people who signed up to the company's membership scheme.
The cyber attack was announced by the company on Wednesday, but it was only revealed that the hackers had stolen huge amounts of customer and employee data after they contacted the BBC with proof. The hackers shared databases with the BBC that included usernames and passwords of all employees, as well as a sample of 10,000 customers' data.
The Co-op membership database is thought to be highly valuable to the company, but the firm has assured the public that there was "no evidence that customer data was compromised". However, this claim appears to have been debunked by the hackers themselves.
DragonForce want the BBC to report the hack and are apparently trying to extort the company for money. They refused to say what they plan to do with the stolen data if they don't get paid. The cyber criminals also shared screenshots of their chat with Co-op's head of cyber security, in which they claimed to have exfiltrated customer database and Co-op member card data.
The attackers also claim to be responsible for the ongoing attack on M&S and an attempted hack of Harrods. This has led government minister Pat McFadden to warn companies to "treat cyber security as an absolute priority". He said that companies must treat their digital shop fronts as they would their physical ones, and take steps to prevent such attacks.
The NCSC (National Cyber Security Centre) and the NCA (National Crime Agency) have met with government officials over the cyber attacks. The Minister will deliver a keynote speech next week setting out government action, emphasizing that the attacks need to be a "wake-up call" for every UK business.
The Co-op has disclosed the full extent of the breach to its staff and the stock market, but it is still unclear how much customer data was stolen. The company is working with the NCSC and NCA to address the situation.
DragonForce operates an affiliate cyber crime service, which allows anyone to use their malicious software and website to carry out attacks and extortions. However, it's not known who is ultimately using the DragonForce service to attack the retailers.
The attackers have also claimed that two of their hackers want to be known as "Raymond Reddington" and "Dembe Zuma", after characters from US crime thriller Blacklist. They say they are "putting UK retailers on the Blacklist".