Since mid-April, a group of hackers put British retailer M&S and supermarket Co-op under attack, M&S first and Co-op following shortly after. The perpetrators deployed ransomware and stole private information about customers and employees, forcing Co-op to disconnect IT networks from the internet to prevent further disruptions. Some people theorize that the four perpetrators arrested by the police are a part of a larger cyber crime organization named Scattered Spider, known for using social engineering to hack into organizations' sensitive information and deploy ransomware.