The North Face and Cartier join growing list of cyber attack targets
The North Face, Hong Kong. Credits: The North Face. Sports brand The North Face and jewellery label Cartier are said to have become the latest fashion retailers to face cyber attacks. According to the BBC, North Face had contacted some customers revealing that it had discovered a “small-scale” attack in April. Hackers were reported to have targeted the brand through “credential stuffing”, a technique where attackers try usernames and passwords from another data breach in the hope customers will have used the same passwords. North Face noted that the attackers may have been able to gain access to some users’ shipping addresses and purchase histories, and as such, impacted customers were urged to change their passwords. In an email to customers seen by the BBC, meanwhile, Cartier said “an unauthorised party gained temporary access to our system” and “obtained limited client information”, not including financial data. Before noting that the incident had been reported to the relevant authorities, Cartier added: “We contained the issue and have further enhanced the protection of our systems and data.” North Face and Cartier join the likes of Adidas, Harrods, Dior, Victoria’s Secret and Marks & Spencer in a growing list of fashion retailers to have reported data breaches over the past two months. While it now seems that North Face had also been tackling an incident as early April, initially a suspected ransomware attack at Marks & Spencer had first appeared to have triggered the chain reaction. The British department store retailer has since seen over 1.2 billion pounds shed off its market value, while CEO Stuart Machin is further said to be facing a 1.1 million pound pay reduction in the incident’s wake. FashionUnited has contacted The North Face's parent company VF Corp and Cartier with requests to comment.
Sports brand The North Face and jewellery label Cartier are said to have become the latest fashion retailers to face cyber attacks.
According to the BBC, North Face had contacted some customers revealing that it had discovered a “small-scale” attack in April.
Hackers were reported to have targeted the brand through “credential stuffing”, a technique where attackers try usernames and passwords from another data breach in the hope customers will have used the same passwords.
North Face noted that the attackers may have been able to gain access to some users’ shipping addresses and purchase histories, and as such, impacted customers were urged to change their passwords.
In an email to customers seen by the BBC, meanwhile, Cartier said “an unauthorised party gained temporary access to our system” and “obtained limited client information”, not including financial data.
Before noting that the incident had been reported to the relevant authorities, Cartier added: “We contained the issue and have further enhanced the protection of our systems and data.”
North Face and Cartier join the likes of Adidas, Harrods, Dior, Victoria’s Secret and Marks & Spencer in a growing list of fashion retailers to have reported data breaches over the past two months.
While it now seems that North Face had also been tackling an incident as early April, initially a suspected ransomware attack at Marks & Spencer had first appeared to have triggered the chain reaction.
The British department store retailer has since seen over 1.2 billion pounds shed off its market value, while CEO Stuart Machin is further said to be facing a 1.1 million pound pay reduction in the incident’s wake.
FashionUnited has contacted The North Face's parent company VF Corp and Cartier with requests to comment.
