Back up the Tesco website and app after a hacking attempt

The Tesco website and app are now up and running again, following a service outage that began on Saturday.

The retail giant’s services had stalled after what Tesco said were attempts to “interfere with our systems”.

The possible attack on Britain’s largest supermarket began with shoppers unable to order goods and track deliveries.

Tesco initially claimed there was “a problem,” but in an update on Sunday it claimed there had been a deliberate outage.

The supermarket then confirmed the Twitter that the website and grocery app were up and running again, but was temporarily using a “virtual waiting room” to handle the high volume of traffic.

Tesco said attempts to compromise its systems were made overnight from Friday to Saturday, but were no longer specific.

According to Downdetector, which monitors website outages, shoppers started reporting issues early on Saturday morning.

The extent of the problem, and whether the problem was nationally or only in certain areas, remained unclear on Sunday evening.

Shoppers complained over the weekend about the lack of information, with many wanting to know how to cancel orders and whether they can get a refund.

On Sunday, a spokesperson for Tesco said: “There is no reason to believe this issue is impacting customer data and we continue to take continuous action to make sure all data remains secure.

“Since yesterday, we have been experiencing outages on our website and our online grocery app.

“An attempt was made to interfere with our systems which caused problems with the search function on the site. We are working hard to fully restore all services and we apologize for the inconvenience.”

Meanwhile, shoppers were looking to change or cancel deliveries or switch to other supermarkets.

Tesco customer Chris Hodgson, who lives in Stoke-on-Trent, told the BBC that the app hadn’t been working properly for “a couple of days”.

He picked up his click-and-collect order on Sunday, but was only able to make half of his weekly shopping before the website went down. “The collection staff member had not been informed of any problems,” Hodgson said. “After I showed him the website, he said it was an unusually quiet day.

“I asked if I could refuse the entire order and was informed that I could refuse only replaced items. I will have to go out again this afternoon. If you have a budget it is annoying, it is an inconvenience.

“Nothing from Tesco, no way to contact them. Really bad from Tesco,” he said.

Another customer, Rebecca, from North Wales, received a delivery of 120 Pepsi drinks on Sunday instead of her order.

“We were supposed to shop for a week this morning,” he told the BBC. “The website was blocked yesterday, so we couldn’t edit or delete it. All we got was 120 cans of Pepsi Max.”

Rebecca, who asked not to use her surname, added: “Yesterday I placed the order over and over again, until the deadline of 11.45 am I didn’t try to call, there must be thousands in the same boat.

“Luckily someone suggested that Asda had delivery slots for today, so I was able to place an order last night (just before the deadline) for enough food for the next few days.”

Tesco initially said Saturday it was “working hard to get things back up and running” and apologized for the inconvenience.

The company’s online sales have increased recently, especially during the lockdown, with the supermarket increasing capacity.

Its latest financial results state that the scale and scale of its online operations are unmatched in the UK, with total sales exceeding £ 6 billion. Tesco claimed to have 6.6 million app users.

Tesco has faced previous attacks. In 2014, around 2,000 customer accounts were deactivated for fear that login data had been compromised and there was also a cyber attack on the supermarket bank branch.

But the problem is becoming more and more common globally. Earlier this year, international meat producer JBS had to close around 25% of its operations. And large swaths of the U.S. fuel supply were shut down after a ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline.

Few industries have escaped the attention of cybercriminals, with airlines, banks, universities, local authorities, utilities, and tech giants like Microsoft experiencing attacks on their computer systems.