Co-op has confirmed it has been hit by a cyber attack, as its back-office systems and call centre services were hacked over the weekend.

The convenience retailer revealed its virtual desktops were down over the weekend but has stated there were no data breaches. It added that the cyber breach was ongoing but had not impacted any of its stores or funeral homes.

The retailer added that it had acted to protect its systems through measures such as shutting down some business services for teams running stores and its legal services division.

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“We have recently experienced attempts to gain unauthorised access to some of our systems,” said a Co-op spokesperson.

“All our stores (including quick commerce operations) and funeral homes are trading as usual. We are working hard to reduce any disruption to our services and would like to thank our colleagues, members, partners and suppliers for their understanding during this period.

“We are not asking our members or customers to do anything differently at this point. We will continue to provide updates as necessary.”

Co-op has become the latest retailer to face a cyber breach, following M&S’ attempts to crackdown on the fallout from the ransomware attack over the bank holiday weekend which has wiped £800m off its market value.

It is understood the high street retailer’s incident has been linked to hacking group Scattered Spider, which comprises young adults and teenagers operating in the UK and US.