ASOS Shares Slide 10% After Cyber Breach Exposes Customer Data

Shares in British online fashion retailer ASOS dropped 10% on Tuesday after the company warned that some customer information may have been accessed in a cybersecurity breach, according to reports from Channel NewsAsia.

The incident began when customers received a phone alert on Tuesday claiming the retailer had been hacked. The message, addressed to ASOS’s data protection officer and IT department, read: “Dear ASOS DPO and IT, we have fully compromised the Snowflake instance. Engage with us, or we will leak it,” followed by a Telegram link, as reported by the Standard and the Independent.

ASOS said on Thursday that an investigation over the previous 48 hours found an “unauthorised party gained access to an Asos employee account by impersonating a trusted contact to obtain log-in credentials,” according to the Standard and the Independent. The party then used the credentials to access information on third-party platforms used by ASOS.

The retailer stated that “basic personal information including name and contact details may have been accessed,” but stressed that no payment card information or account passwords were impacted, according to Channel NewsAsia. ASOS also said “certain non-personal account-related information” was accessed, as reported by the Standard and the Independent.

A hacking group calling itself the “Xuanye group” claimed responsibility for the breach in the push alert sent to ASOS app users, Channel NewsAsia reported. In a message posted to a Telegram channel, the group said payment information “is not affected” and that the ASOS app “is safe to use.” The group added: “The incident involves customer information, it is safe on our server, and it will not be touched for a designated period.”

Data storage firm Snowflake, which was referenced in the hackers’ notification, distanced itself from the incident. A Snowflake spokeswoman said the issue “did not in any way result from a vulnerability, weakness, flaw, or misconfiguration with the Snowflake service, platform, or internal environments, and was not caused by Snowflake,” according to the Standard and the Independent. Snowflake said it launched an investigation as soon as it became aware of the notification and found “no compromise of the Snowflake platform,” Channel NewsAsia reported.

ASOS said it took immediate action to restrict access to the affected platforms and is working with internal and external specialist advisers, as well as all relevant authorities. The company’s website and app continued to operate normally with no disruption to operations, the retailer said. ASOS added that it has cyber insurance, including basic continuity insurance, but said it was too early to quantify any potential impact on trading.

The breach comes amid a broader wave of cyberattacks on British companies and institutions. Channel NewsAsia noted that the British Library, a blood testing service, the London Underground, Marks & Spencer, the Co-op and Jaguar Land Rover have all suffered months of disruption due to such breaches in recent years.

Hackers have previously targeted organisations’ Snowflake data repositories. In 2024, Google’s cybersecurity unit Mandiant detailed a widespread hacking spree targeting Snowflake data associated with at least 165 customers, according to Channel NewsAsia.

Despite the share drop, ASOS shares were up more than 60% so far this year, though they remain well below a 2018 peak amid tough competition in fast fashion. The company has been divesting assets and last month provided an upbeat profit forecast for fiscal 2026, Channel NewsAsia reported.

The attack on the British retailer shows that compromising a single identity can lead to much deeper penetration of the corporate network, according to DarkReading.