Shares in Asos fell more than 10 per cent on Tuesday after customers reported receiving notifications from the fashion retailer’s app saying the company had been hacked. The messages sent to some customers’ phones said Asos had been “hacked” and threatened to leak unspecified material, according to screen grabs posted by multiple users on social media. The message read: “Dear ASOS DPO and IT, we have fully compromised the Snowflake instance.
Engage with us, or we will leak it.” Snowflake is a widely used cloud-based data platform. The apparent incident follows several large-scale cyber attacks on UK companies, including Jaguar Land Rover and the Co-op Group. There was no immediate confirmation that Asos customer data had been accessed but customers were warned to be on alert for follow-up attacks.
Shares in Asos, which is listed on London’s FTSE 250 index, dropped as much as 11 per cent in morning trading. Asos declined to comment on the hacking claims, but a person familiar with the matter said it was investigating the incident. Snowflake did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Its share price fell 2 per cent in pre-market trading on Tuesday. A data breach involving Snowflake customers in 2024 was linked to several high-profile cyber attacks including AT&T, Ticketmaster and Santander. “This is an unusually brazen and threatening message,” said Marijus Briedis, chief technology officer at Nord VPN, a security provider. “What makes it even more concerning is how that threat appears to have been delivered . . . [The app notification] suggests someone has gained unauthorised access to at least part of Asos’s systems, although we don’t yet know how extensive that access is.” Briedis warned Asos customers to watch out for phishing attacks, such as emails or texts claiming to be from Asos about passwords or payment details. “When an attacker can potentially speak to customers through a company’s own systems, it makes the threat considerably more convincing and potentially much more damaging,” he said. Any breach, if confirmed, would make Asos the latest in a string of UK victims of cyber attacks.
Hackers recently targeted Manchester Airports Group, which in August reported that data relating to 8.7mn customers was accessed following a breach. Last year, retailer M&S was forced to shut down its online clothing business for more than three weeks following a cyber attack that accessed some customer data.
Source: Financial Times Companies · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing