The third UK retailer hit in a two-week wave detected its intruders in hours, cut its own network before the ransomware could fire, and never paid a penny. It still lost the data of all 6.5 million members and £206 million in sales. This is what the good outcome costs. Case type: Social engineering / attempted ransomware / data theft Identified: Apr 22, 2025 Disclosed: Apr 30, 2025 Attribution: Scattered Spider affiliates / DragonForce RaaS Every breach in this serie

The first and hardest-hit target of the UK retail wave. A few minutes of impersonation at an outsourced service desk, weeks of quiet access, every domain password reportedly harvested, and then the encryptor. M&S never said whether it paid. Its accounts said statutory profit fell from $509 million to $4.4 million. Case type: Social engineering / ransomware Identified: Apr 19–21, 2025 Disclosed: Apr 22, 2025 Attribution: Scattered Spider (reported) / DragonForce ransomware

The third target of the UK retail wave cut its own internet access, kept trading, and said almost nothing. The wave broke against it. Months later, 430,000 customer records left anyway, through a supplier Harrods has never named. Both halves are the story Case type: Attempted intrusion / third-party data breach Identified: Late Apr 2025; Sept 2025 Disclosed: May 1, 2025; Sept 26, 2025 Attribution: Wave linked to Scattered Spider / DragonForce; Sept actor unnamed By the