TCS refutes UK media report on losing $1-billion M&S contract over cyberattack
TCS says it continues to work on numerous other areas, in its role as a strategic partner for M&S and is proud of the longstanding partnership with the UK firm.
Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. has denied a report published in The Telegraph UK that Marks & Spencer's Plc has scrapped its contract with India's largest outsourcer over a cyberattack that affected the UK-based earlier this year.
“The report published…is misleading, with factual inaccuracies including the size of contract and the continuity of of TCS' work for M&S,” according to an exchange filing in Mumbai on Monday (27 October 2025). Moreover, M&S initiated a “request for proposal” process for its service-desk contract in January 2025, much before the cyberattack happened in April 2025.
“These matters are hence clearly unrelated,” TCS went on to say.
On 26 October, The Telegraph UK reported that M&S has ditched TCS accused of “being at fault for its devastating cyberattack earlier this year”. The report pegged the size of the contract £300 million as against £1 billion reported in the Indian media earlier. The retailer has not renewed a deal with TCS to run its tech helpdesk, the report stated.
“The commercial aspect of the service desk area represents an insignificant part of TCS' overall engagement with M&S,” the Tata Group company said in its exchange filing. “TCS continues to work on numerous other areas, in its role as a strategic partner for M&S and is proud of this longstanding partnership.”
As for the cyberattack, TCS said the related vulnerabilities did not originate from the systems it operates for M&S. “TCS does not provide cybersecurity services to M&S. This is a services that is provided by another partner.”
ABOUT THE AUTHORTushar Deep SinghTushar Deep Singh is a business journalist and digital editorial leader with 12 years of experience in financial journalism. Currently Assistant Editor at Hindustan Times, he is building the HT Business vertical and managing the newsletters for both Livemint and HT. When not in the newsroom, he can be found on a motorcycle. Throughout his career, Tushar has been instrumental in scaling digital publishing operations at some of India’s largest financial news websites. His six-year tenure at Mint—the first job—saw him plunge into online media to deliver record-breaking digital engagement for Livemint.com, including 7.2 million page views on 2017 UP Election Results day. He held fort at Livemint during a senior-level leadership transition later that year. That won him the HT Media Star Award (Bronze) in 2017 and a Certificate of Appreciation for Editorial Excellence in 2018. As the head of the digital desk at ETtech, he curated two daily, full-stack newsletters from an editorial as well as product perspective. At NDTV Profit, he transitioned from website editor to principal correspondent, reporting on the auto sector for the TV channel and website, thereby adding yet another layer to his editorial expertise. He is a post-graduate in journalism from Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai, and a graduate from St. Xavier's College, Ahmedabad.Read More

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