Business
Four arrested in connection with M&S and Co-op cyber attacks
Cyber correspondent, BBC World Service
Four people have been arrested by police investigating the cyber-attacks that have caused havoc at M&S and the Co-op.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) says a 20-year-old woman was arrested in Staffordshire, and three males – aged between 17 and 19 – were detained in London and the West Midlands.
They were apprehended on suspicion of Computer Misuse Act offences, blackmail, money laundering and participating in the activities of an organised crime group.
All four were arrested at their homes in the early hours of Thursday. Electronic devices were also seized by the police.
One of the suspects – a 19-year-old man – is from Latvia, the rest are from the UK.
Neighbours described a large police operation in the quiet Staffordshire cul-de-sac where the 20-year-old was arrested.
They said dozens of NCA officers, some wearing balaclavas, arrived in the early hours of this morning and smashed down the door of a family home. Later they were seen taking away a large number of electronic devices.
Paul Foster, head of the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit, said the arrests were a “significant step” in its investigation.
“But our work continues, alongside partners in the UK and overseas, to ensure those responsible are identified and brought to justice,” he added.
The hacks – which began in mid April – have caused huge disruption for the two retailers.
Some Co-op shelves were left bare for weeks, while M&S expects its operations to be affected until late July, with some IT systems not fully operational until October or November.
The chairman of M&S told MPs this week that it felt like the hack was an attempt to destroy the business. The retailer has estimated it will cost it £300m in lost profits.
Harrods was also targeted in an attack that had less impact on its operations.
A wave of attacks
M&S was the first to be breached. A huge amount of private data belonging to customers and staff was stolen.
The criminals also deployed malicious software called ransomware scrambling the company’s IT networks making them unusable unless a ransom was paid.
The BBC revealed that the hackers had sent an offensive email to the M&S boss demanding payment.
A few days after M&S was breached the Co-op was also targeted by criminals who broke in and stole the private data of millions of its customers and staff.
The Co-op was forced to admit that the data breach had happened after hackers contacted the BBC with proof that the firm was downplaying the cyber attack.
The BBC later discovered from the criminals that the company disconnected the internet from IT networks in the nick of time to stop the hackers from deploying ransomware and so causing even more disruption.
Shortly after Co-op announced it had been attacked, luxury retailer Harrods said it too had been targeted and had been forced to disconnect IT systems from the internet to keep the criminals out.
The four people arrested are a 17-year-old British male from the West Midlands, a 19-year-old British man from London, a 19-year-old Latvian male from the West Midlands and a 20-year-old British woman from Staffordshire.
The NCA said its operation was supported by officers from the West Midlands Regional Organised Crime Unit and the East Midlands Special Operations Unit.
Business
Why AI alone can’t guarantee business success, expert cautions
As companies around the world race to adopt artificial intelligence (AI), strategy expert Shotunde Taiwo urges business leaders to look beyond the hype and focus on aligning technology with clear strategic goals.
Taiwo, a finance and strategy professional, cautions that while AI offers transformative potential, it is not a guaranteed path to success. Without a coherent strategy, organisations risk misdirecting resources, entrenching inefficiencies, and failing to deliver meaningful value from their AI investments.
“AI cannot substitute for strategic clarity,” she explains, stressing the importance of purposeful direction before deploying advanced digital tools. Business leaders, she says, must first define their objectives, only then can AI act as an effective enabler rather than an expensive distraction.
Taiwo stated that many organisations are investing heavily in AI labs, data infrastructure, and talent acquisition without clearly defined business outcomes. This approach, she notes, risks undermining the very efficiencies these technologies are meant to create.
For example, a retail business lacking a distinctive value proposition cannot expect a recommendation engine to deliver meaningful differentiation. Similarly, manufacturers without well-structured pricing strategies will find limited benefit in predictive analytics. “AI amplifies what’s already there,” she adds. “It rewards businesses with strong foundations and exposes those without.”
According to Taiwo, the true value of AI emerges when it is guided by intelligent, strategic intent. High-performing organisations use AI to solve well-defined problems aligned with commercial goals, often framed by business analysts or strategic leaders who understand both operational realities and broader business priorities.
She cites Amazon’s recommendation engine and UPS’s route optimisation algorithms as models of effective AI deployment. In both cases, technology served a clear purpose: boosting customer retention and streamlining logistics, respectively. When guided by strategy, AI becomes a force multiplier, enhancing forecasting, enabling automation, and improving personalisation where workflows are already well-defined.
On the other hand, even the most advanced AI systems falter in the absence of sound strategy. Common pitfalls include deploying machine learning models without a business case, focusing on tools rather than problems, collecting data without a clear use, and optimising narrow metrics at the expense of enterprise-wide goals. These missteps often result in underwhelming pilots and disillusioned stakeholders, issues strategic professionals are well-equipped to navigate and avoid.
In this sense, AI adoption can serve as a strategic diagnostic. Taiwo suggests that when business leaders struggle to define impactful AI use cases, it often reflects deeper ambiguity in their organisational direction. Key questions, such as where value is created, who the primary customer is, or which decisions would benefit most from improved speed or accuracy, are not technical, but fundamentally strategic.
AI, she says, acts as a mirror, revealing strengths and weaknesses in how a business is positioned, differentiated, and aligned across functions. Strategic leaders and business analysts are uniquely positioned to interpret these insights, inform course corrections, and guide effective technology investments.
Looking ahead, Taiwo argues that strategy in the AI era must be data-literate, agile, ethically grounded, and above all, human-centred. Leaders must understand what data they have, and how it can be harnessed, without needing to become technologists themselves.
Organisations must be nimble enough to act on AI-driven insights, whether through supply chain reconfiguration or dynamic pricing. Ethics, too, are critical, especially as AI increasingly impacts areas such as hiring, lending, and content moderation. “AI is not a replacement for strategy – it is a reflection of it,” she said.
In organisations with clarity and discipline, AI can unlock significant value. In those without, it risks adding cost and complexity. The responsibility for today’s leaders is to ensure that technology serves the business, not the other way around.
Business
No imminent change to tax-free allowance
There will be no immediate changes to cash Individual Savings Accounts (Isas), the BBC understands.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves was widely expected to announce plans to reduce the £20,000 tax-free allowance.
The move was aimed at encouraging more investment in stocks and shares, which the goverment says it will still focus on.
“Our ambition is to ensure people’s hard-earned savings are delivering the best returns and driving more investment into the UK economy,” a Treasury spokesperson said.
The Treasury is expected to continue to talk to banks, building societies and investment firms about options for reform.
An Isa is a savings or investment product that is treated differently for tax purposes.
Any returns you make from an Isa are tax-free, but there is a limit to how much money you can put in each year.
The current £20,000 annual allowance can be used in one account or spread across multiple Isa products as you wish.
Business
UK economy shrank unexpectedly in May
The economy shrank by 0.1%, the second month in a row it has contracted.
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