Sainsbury’s has been affected by a ransomware attack on payroll system provider Kronos.

The Big Four supermarket confirmed that though it had lost a full week of data its employees would be paid before Christmas.

Kronos is a Massachusetts-based firm which provides a HR tool which tracks employees' hours.

Kronos' parent company UKG said its service will be out of action for "several weeks" and urged users "evaluate and implement alternative business continuity protocols related to the affected UKG solutions."

Other users of Kronos’s solution include Boots and Jaguar Land Rover.

"We're in close contact with Kronos while they investigate a systems issue,” said a Sainsbury’s spokesperson. “In the meantime, we have contingencies in place to make sure our colleagues continue to receive their pay."

Cyberattacks have continued to be a thorn in the side of UK retailers, earlier this month a cyberattack affected 300 Spar stores in the North of England.

Retailers are less likely than businesses in other industries to weather the effects of a ransomware attack, because of their complex IT and cloud infrastructure, according to research from data management and security firm Veritas Technologies released last December.

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