A cryptic push notification sent to Asos customers last week initially confused shoppers, with some believing it was a marketing campaign for the retailer’s Christmas collection.
One customer wrote on X that they assumed the alert was “some crappy marketing scheme to get me to check the app and to view their snowflake collection.”
The notification was in fact a direct threat to Asos’s management, warning that personal data belonging to millions of customers could be leaked by the hackers behind the breach.
The attackers claim to have gained access to Asos’s servers on Snowflake, a cloud platform service used by retailers to store basic customer information and send push notifications.
Asos has attempted to reassure customers that no payment information was stolen and that its app remains safe to use, but the hacking group disputes that account.
Days after the Asos incident, high street retailer H&M said it was investigating claims that Shinyhunters, a global criminal hacking group currently being pursued by the FBI, had breached its servers.
The Foschini Group (TFG), the Johannesburg-listed retail group which owns brands including White Stuff, Phase Eight, Hobbs and Whistles, said it was aware of a “cybersecurity incident” at its London business.
TFG added there was “no reason to believe that payment information is at risk,” though it confirmed that IT systems and websites across several of its brands had been impacted.
On the continent, Dutch supermarket chain Ahold Delhaize was forced to shut down several systems following what it described as a “security issue” on its network.
Separately, fridges at a number of French supermarket chains were targeted in a hack that forced temperatures to rise as high as 50C, spoiling fresh and frozen food said to be worth millions of euros.
Dominique Schelcher, chief executive of grocery chain Coopérative U, said the incident “is of extreme gravity and is unprecedented,” highlighting the severity of the physical consequences of the digital attack.
Marijus Briedis, chief technology officer at NordVPN, warned that the implications of such attacks extend well beyond data theft, saying: “Hackers don’t need to get into the tills to cause havoc in a supermarket.”
Briedis added: “Interfere with the equipment keeping food cold and you can force stores to throw away valuable stock, shut entire aisles and leave shoppers facing empty fridges and freezers. A cyberattack can quickly become a food safety problem, as well as a very expensive one for retailers.”
This latest wave follows high-profile breaches at Co-op, Marks and Spencer, and Harrods last year, with Co-op alone reporting the incident cost it £206m in revenue as it continues to recover.
Aim-listed toys and crafts retailer The Works contacted staff the day after the Asos breach, reminding employees to remain vigilant against phishing and social engineering attempts.
Tesco chief executive Ken Murphy said the supermarket was monitoring the Asos situation closely, stating: “We invest very, very heavily in cybersecurity. It’s something we take exceptionally seriously for obvious reasons. We’re constantly vigilant.”
Murphy added that the UK’s largest grocer was “staying up to date” with the latest prevention methods and was actively updating employees on how to guard against cyber threats.
He said: “We will obviously seek to learn from any incident, including the Asos incident, to make sure that we are staying on top of that.”
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, noted that UK retailers already spend hundreds of millions of pounds each year on cyber defences, warning that “cyber-attacks are a very real risk for all businesses and are becoming increasingly sophisticated.”
Asos’s hackers gained entry by posing as a “trusted contact” of an employee to obtain login credentials, mirroring the tactics used in the earlier attacks on M&S and Co-op, where IT workers were tricked into handing over their details.
Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at Wealth Club, said the latest attacks will serve as a “brutal alarm call” for the sector, adding: “The consequences of a breach can stretch far beyond stolen information, hitting sales, disrupting operations and eroding customer trust.”