UK retailer Woolworths has joined the illustrious list of companies unable to deal with the Internet. It was the old tale - people being able to read customers credit card details and telephone numbers. Displaying the same ignorance of Internet security as Barclays and PowerGen was one thing, but Woolworths has gone one better.

That's right, it's pulled the site entirely. Pay a visit to www.woolies.co.uk and all you'll get is a blue screen, Woolies' logo and a sign: "The Woolworths store is currently closed". The site was taken down on Tuesday and the company doesn't reckon it'll be up until the end of next week.

Now, you have to wonder why the company needs this long to simply tack on a bit of security. The obvious answer would be that it hasn't got a bleeding clue what it's doing. A slightly ruffled spokesman agreed that two weeks was a long time to sort out its problems but disagreed with our conclusion: "The time is so we can make exhaustive tests and each one is taking ages. We just want to make sure this is a one-off."

We shake our respective heads. ®

Related Stories

Barclays cock-up the tip of an ugly, secret iceberg
Barclays online cockup
PowerGen gives lessons on stupidity
PowerGen credit card security cock-up
PowerGen stems flow to bloody nose