Business

Hackers tried to ‘destroy’ Marks & Spencer, chair tells MPs

Published

2 days ago

July 8, 2025

Mitchell Labiak

Business reporter, BBC News

Getty Images Shoppers and people outside Marks & Spencer in Swansea

Marks & Spencer’s chair has said it felt like the hackers behind April’s cyber attack were “trying to destroy” the business.

The retailer halted online orders and customers were faced with empty shelves in shops following the attack, which M&S has said will continue to affect customers until the end of this month.

The department store’s chair Archie Norman told MPs the company believed hacker group DragonForce was responsible, something the BBC confirmed last month.

He said the group’s motives were “partly, undoubtedly, ransom or extortion” and an email seen by the BBC confirms DragonForce wanted payment.

“It’s very rare to have a criminal actor from another – or in this country, we’re never quite sure – seeking to stop customers shopping at M&S, essentially trying to destroy your business,” Mr Norman said.

“It’s like an out of body experience,” he added.

M&S has repeatedly declined to comment on whether or not it paid a ransom, which would likely be in the millions, with Mr Norman telling MPs on the Business Select Committee that the firm would not “discuss the nature of the interaction with the threat actor”.

The MPs also heard from retailer Co-op, which also suffered a cyber attack in April. Its general secretary Dominic Kendal-Ward said: “We did not pay a ransom. We did not contemplate or at any point discuss paying a ransom.”

M&S’s Mr Norman described the experience as “traumatic” and said “for a week probably, the cyber team had no sleep – three hours a night”.

He added that though customers will see the business running as normal by the end of July “background systems – that hopefully customers don’t see – we will still be working on October or November.”

M&S has predicted the attack will hit this year’s profits by around £300m, though Mr Norman said the firm hoped to recover some this cost from insurance payouts.

Asked about regulation, Mr Norman said he felt large companies should be required to report “material” cyber attacks.

“We have reason to believe that there have been two major cyber attacks on large British companies in the last four months that have gone unreported,” he said, though he did not provide any evidence for this.

‘That’s Horlicks’

Mr Norman admitted that M&S had “legacy systems” because of the its age. “We probably wish we didn’t,” he added.

He said that with the benefit of hindsight the company would have brought forward its planned technology investment to strengthen its cyber-security systems.

“Would it have prevented the attack? Not necessarily, but that’s not a reason for not doing it,” he added.

However, Mr Norman hit back at the suggestion M&S’s systems were vulnerable.

“Just to be clear, there have been media reports that M&S left the back door open… that’s all Horlicks,” he said adding that “the attacker only has to be lucky once”.

“Ultimately, can the attacker get in? They probably can if they try hard enough.”

Mr Norman revealed the attacker gained access to the system through “sophisticated impersonation”.

He said the firm handled the attack a lot better than it would have done when he joined in 2017. Back then, he said the business was “broken” and struggling with debt.

“If this had happened then, I think we would have been kippered,” he said.

Mr Norman said the firm had practice drills to prepare for a cyber attack but “nothing survives the first whiff of gunshot”.

“The simulation… was nothing like what happened, the intensity of it,” he said.

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Business

How Businesses Can Adapt SEO for AI and Social Media Search

Published

2 hours ago

July 10, 2025

Rachel Sterling

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

We’re witnessing a pivotal moment in the evolution of search. Search engine optimization (SEO) has become more complex and dynamic than ever as Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) and other AI-powered summary tools become the face of the search experience.

With the rise of AI and social media platforms as primary search channels, traditional SEO tactics are falling short. If AI summaries become the new gatekeepers of online discovery, your brand’s visibility depends on more than just ranking on page one. You’ll need to optimize for how these algorithms synthesize, repurpose and favor content. That means prioritizing credibility, clarity and domain relevance.

In this regard, 2025 is shaping up to be a turning point. As the SEO landscape shifts, brands need to rethink everything from their domain strategy to their presence in AI-generated search results to stay competitive. Ultimately, if your brand isn’t seen as a clear expert in your field, you risk becoming invisible online.

Disappear or adapt: Why you need to invest in organic AI optimization

As AI-driven search continues to evolve, brands will face a choice: Invest in more intelligent, AI-optimized SEO or become increasingly overlooked in search results. Brands are confronting heightened competition for limited visibility within AI-generated results. In response, forward-thinking brands are approaching AI search as a distinct optimization channel.

This approach requires updating the website structure and content to align with how AI systems parse information. As a result, brands will want to make fresh content part of their SEO strategy. This involves regularly updating cornerstone pages, refreshing stats and maintaining an active publishing cadence because AI craves relevance and recency. On the technical side, they’ll also need to invest in optimizing their sites with structured data, schema markup and clear metadata to make content easier for AI models to understand, surface and cite.

Your domain name might be holding you back

One of the easiest ways to stand out in AI-generated search is by leveraging a strategic domain name. In an AI-powered ecosystem, short, descriptive and memorable domains can provide an edge by standing out, signaling relevance and credibility to both prospective customers and algorithms.

By adopting a domain closely aligned with the interests of your target audience, you’re helping generative AI search better identify the purpose of your website, while strengthening the authority and clarity of your services for AI.

Where social media search comes into play

Today, social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram are channels where people — especially Gen Z — begin their search journeys. Why? They want to see a product, hear about it and watch someone use it.

To meet this increase in social search, work to align your SEO, marketing and social media strategies around shared messaging and content. Starting this July, Instagram will allow public posts to be indexed by search engines. Brands that treat social media content as a standalone channel, separate from SEO, may miss out on this discoverability opportunity. An integrated, cross-platform strategy reinforces your authority across all discovery channels, AI included.

But here’s the wildcard: with more discussion around regulation and algorithm shifts, social media platforms are also becoming increasingly unpredictable. So what happens if platforms get banned for certain users or decline in popularity? Will more consumers default back to Google and Amazon? The answer isn’t clear, but one thing is: Those that align and optimize for visibility across all search channels will be better positioned for success.

The future of search revolves around clarity, credibility and relevance

At its core, SEO has always centered around making your brand easier to discover. But in this new age of AI and social-driven discovery, clarity, credibility and relevance matter more than ever.

That’s why businesses need to treat their digital identity and everything it touches — including their domain, content and brand messaging — as a holistic ecosystem. Your domain name should reflect who you are. Your content should prove what you know. And your online presence should signal relevance, credibility and authority to machines and humans alike.

The brands that thrive in this new search era will be the ones that adapt quickly, invest smartly and make their digital identities crystal clear.

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Business

EU unveils AI code of practice to help businesses comply with bloc’s rules

Published

5 hours ago

July 10, 2025

Associated Press

By KELVIN CHAN, Associated Press Business Writer

LONDON (AP) — The European Union on Thursday released a code of practice on general purpose artificial intelligence to help thousands of businesses in the 27-nation bloc using the technology comply with the bloc’s landmark AI rule book.

The EU code is voluntary and complements the EU’s AI Act, a comprehensive set of regulations that was approved last year and is taking effect in phases.

The code focuses on three areas: transparency requirements for providers of AI models that are looking to integrate them into their products; copyright protections; and safety and security of the most advanced AI systems

The AI Act’s rules on general purpose artificial intelligence are set to take force on Aug. 2. The bloc’s AI Office, under its executive Commission, won’t start enforcing them for at least a year.

General purpose AI, exemplified by chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, can do many different tasks and underpin many of the AI systems that companies are using across the EU.

Under the AI Act, uses of artificial intelligence face different levels of scrutiny depending on the level of risk they pose, with some uses deemed unacceptable banned entirely. Violations could draw fines of up to 35 million euros ($41 million), or 7% of a company’s global revenue.

Some Big Tech companies such as Meta have resisted the regulations, saying they’re unworkable, and U.S. Vice President JD Vance, speaking at a Paris summit in February, criticized “excessive regulation” of AI, warning it could kill “a transformative industry just as it’s taking off.”

More recently, more than 40 European companies, including Airbus, Mercedes-Benz, Philips and French AI startup Mistral, urged the bloc in an open letter to postpone the regulations for two years. They say more time is needed to simplify “unclear, overlapping and increasingly complex EU regulations” that put the continent’s competitiveness in the global AI race at risk.

There was no sign that Brussels was prepared to stop the clock.

“Today’s publication of the final version of the Code of Practice for general-purpose AI marks an important step in making the most advanced AI models available in Europe not only innovative but also safe and transparent,” the commission’s executive vice president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, Henna Virkkunen, said in a news release.

Originally Published: July 10, 2025 at 6:44 AM PDT

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Business

AI/R Company Launches AI-Powered Platform to Streamline Corporate Hiring Processes

Published

5 hours ago

July 10, 2025

The Manila Times

With AI/Quick-Match, the AI agent Llia cuts hiring costs by up to 80% and reduces time-to-hire by up to threefold

SAN FRANCISCO, July 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — AI Revolution Company (AI/R), a global leader in AI-driven business transformation, has announced the launch of Llia, its next-generation AI agent. Through its flagship product AI/Quick-Match, Llia delivers data-driven hiring decisions, helping companies make smarter, faster, and more cost-effective recruitment choices.

Designed as a “plug-and-play” solution, AI/Quick-Match seamlessly integrates with existing recruitment tools to accelerate hiring, reduce expenses, and ensure better candidate matches. The platform enhances HR teams by aligning talent profiles with organizational needs, automating candidate screening, conducting technical and behavioral interviews, and providing in-depth analytics-transforming the recruitment process from end to end.

“Automating interviews saves recruiters valuable time and delivers more accurate evaluations. With AI-driven insights and data-backed feedback, companies can make more confident hiring decisions. In fact, AI/Quick-Match has been shown to reduce recruitment costs by up to 80% and accelerate the hiring process by up to three times,” explains Maycon Zamunaro, CTO of Invillia, the AI/R company behind the platform. In just one month since its launch, the tool has powered over 1,000 interviews and led to approximately 100 successful hires.

Llia was created to be a natural extension of human teams-an AI agent that connects data, intelligence, and knowledge to support better decision-making and empower organizations.

Soon, three more products will be added to the Llia suite: AI/Team-Management, AI/Onboarding&Training, and AI/Performance-Review, enabling the platform to support every stage of the organizational lifecycle.

According to Alexis Rockenbach, Global CEO of AI/R Company, Llia is redefining how companies approach recruitment and talent management. “Its integrated and highly customizable products allow it to operate across all phases of the employee journey: attraction, retention, management, and development. Llia isn’t just an assistant-it’s a strategic pillar for scaling people and teams,” he states.

About AI/R

AI/R, headquartered in California, is an Agentic AI Software Engineering company that leverages its powerful ecosystem of proprietary AI platforms and hyper-specialized tech brands to drive the global enterprise revolution. Through its proprietary AI platforms and strategic partner platforms, AI/R is reshaping industries and setting new standards for business innovation and productivity. By embedding AI into every aspect of its operations, AI/R’s mission is to make the AI revolution a revolution for everyone, empowering human talent and raising the bar for digital transformation. Let’s breathe in the future.

Contact

Milena Buarque Lopes Bandeira

[email protected]

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