You know that awful, gut-wrenching feeling in the pit of your stomach when you when you realise something has gone terribly wrong?

The bosses of M&S know that feeling well. A few weeks ago, a cyber-attack crippled their business. We don’t know much about what the hackers have demanded, but we do know they sent emails to the company’s executives gloating that they had infiltrated their business, and we know that negotiations have begun to try and get whatever data and systems they have taken hostage back.

This isn’t uncommon. Thousands of attacks like this happen every day, most of which you will never hear about. It’s common a problem for businesses, and in some cases individuals, that it’s given birth to an industry of cyber-attack negotiators – people whose job it is to negotiate with the hackers and try to end their cyber-hijacking.

Kurtis Minder – CEO of the cyber-security company GroupSense – is the man people call in a panic when their systems have been compromised. He takes over, begins communication with the hackers, and tries to negotiate you out of their cyber-headlock.

Last week on Times Radio, I spoke to Kurtis to ask him… how DO you negotiate with cyber-criminals?