Safeway delays website relaunch

Supermarket chain Safeway has admitted that it is not ready to reactivate its website, and has refused to commit to a relaunch date because of security fears.

The information-only site was taken down on 11 August this year after a hoax email was sent to customers telling them that the store was raising its prices by 25 per cent and that "if this doesn't sound good then you can p*** off to another supermarket chain such as Tesco or Sainsbury's".

Safeway says it will not now relaunch until it is sure the site is secure.

"We want to be able to assure our customers that they can converse with us via a secure connection, so it is important to us that we don't relaunch the site until we are satisfied the work has been completed, and has also been checked thoroughly," said a Safeway spokeswoman.

Security experts agree that the move towards more robust testing is good for consumer confidence.

"Companies are wary. Certainly in business-to-consumer, where there was a rush to sell anything and everything online, there is more caution, which is a good thing," said Neil Barrett, of security consultants Information Risk Management.

Jan Babiok, managing partner of the information systems practice at Ernst & Young, said: "Testing has to have just as much focus on confidentiality and availability as the integrity of the data."

Separately, the Woolworth's website came back online on Monday after being kept down for nearly two months after the discovery of a security flaw. The store tied in a security overhaul with a revamp of the services offered on the site.

First published in Computing