Asos shares slump as customers get warning threat of 'hack'

(Sharecast News) - Shares in Asos slumped almost 12% on Tuesday after thousands of customers received a mobile phone alert claiming the online fast fashion retailer had been hacked.

The sharp fall made the stock the biggest loser on the FTSE 250 as investors reacted to fears of a potential data breach.

The notification, pushed through the company's own app and titled "Asos hacked", directed users to a Telegram message in which unidentified attackers claimed to have "fully compromised" the retailer's Snowflake data instance. It triggered immediate concern that cybercriminals had gained access to sensitive customer information.

Asos said it was investigating the incident and had not yet confirmed whether a breach had taken place. Despite the alarming message, the company's website and app continued to operate normally on Tuesday morning, and the retailer stressed that it was still working to establish the facts.

The attackers' message appeared to be addressed to Asos's data protection and IT teams, suggesting they may have accessed systems controlling the mobile app's pushnotification function. Snowflake, the cloud platform referenced in the alert, stores and processes customer data including transactions, demographic details and bodymeasurement information.

Asos said it would provide updates once its investigation had progressed. Analysts said the steep share price fall reflected both uncertainty over the scale of the incident and the sensitivity of retailers to cyber risks following a series of highprofile attacks across the sector last year.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com