Adidas contacts customers after details stolen in cyber attack | Personal Finance | Finance

Adidas is contacting customers whose personal details may have been stolen in a cyber attack.

The shop chain released a statement to explain that an “unauthorised external party” had accessed some customer data through a third-party provider.

The compromised data is mainly contact information for people who contacted the customer service help desk. Adidas is now getting in touch with customers whose details may have been taken.

Adidas managers posted the update on their website on May 27. The full statement reads: “Adidas recently became aware that an unauthorised external party obtained certain consumer data through a third-party customer service provider.

“We immediately took steps to contain the incident and launched a comprehensive investigation, collaborating with leading information security experts.

“The affected data does not contain passwords, credit card or any other payment-related information. It mainly consists of contact information relating to consumers who had contacted our customer service help desk in the past.

“Adidas is in the process of informing potentially affected consumers as well as appropriate data protection and law enforcement authorities consistent with applicable law. We remain fully committed to protecting the privacy and security of our consumers, and sincerely regret any inconvenience or concern caused by this incident.”

The sportswear chain is the latest major retailer to be hit by cyber incidents, with big names who have also been targeted including Co-op, Harrods and M&S.

M&S services continue to be majorly impacted, with customers unable to place orders online or in store. The group was asked today (May 28) when normal services would resume.

The supermarket chain said in response: “We can’t confirm that at the moment, but we are working very hard to get operations back online.”

Jonathan Lee, director of Cyber Strategy at cyber security group Trend Micro, warned it could take months for services to be back up and running.

M&S said in an update for customers that some personal details were taken in the cyber attack, such as phone numbers, email addresses and order histories.

Mr Lee urged customers whose email addresses may have been compromised to be on the look out for phishing emails where scammers pretend to be from a legitimate organisation, to dupe people into handing over their details.

He urged: “M&S customers should question any email which asks them to take urgent action, such as resetting their password or providing personal information. Never click on links in suspicious emails.”