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A letter from the M&S hackers landed in my inbox - this is what happened next

BBC's Joe Tidy spoke directly to those who claim they are responsible for hacking M&S and Co-op.

Through messages back-and-forth over the next five hours, it became clear to me that these apparent hackers were fluent English speakers and although they claimed be messengers, it was obvious they were closely linked to - if not intimately involved in - the M&S and Co-op hacks. I quickly contacted the press team at the Co-op for comment, and within minutes the firm, who had initially downplayed the hack, admitted to employees, customers and the stock market about the significant data breach. "Behind the scenes of the ransomware ecosystem there seems to be some jostling - that might be for prime 'leader' position or just to disrupt other groups in order to take more of the victim share," said Aiden Sinnott, senior threat researcher from the cyber security company Secureworks.

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