Adidas has become the latest major brand to reveal it has been hit by a cyber attack in which customers’ personal data has been stolen. The sportswear giant said criminals had accessed and stolen consumer data that “mainly consists” of contact information from customers who had reached out to the German firm’s helpdesk. Adidas added […]
Adidas has become the latest major brand to reveal it has been hit by a cyber attack in which customers’ personal data has been stolen.
The sportswear giant said criminals had accessed and stolen consumer data that “mainly consists” of contact information from customers who had reached out to the German firm’s helpdesk.
Adidas added that it does not believe passwords, credit card or payment data had been stolen in the breach, which has also had no impact on the company’s business operations.
“Adidas recently became aware that an unauthorised external party obtained certain consumer data through a third-party customer service provider,” the firm said.
“We immediately took steps to contain the incident and launched a comprehensive investigation, collaborating with leading information security experts.
“Adidas is in the process of informing potentially affected consumers as well as appropriate data protection and law enforcement authorities consistent with applicable law.”
It follows a spate of cyberattacks on retail brands, with Marks & Spencer recently revealing a breach on Easter weekend that took down several of its systems could cost the shopping firm up to £300 million.
M&S was forced to take several systems offline earlier this month thanks to the attack, which the retail group said had been exposed due to “human error”.
The Co-operative Group also faced significant disruption earlier this month after an attack across its retail chain led to empty shelves in many of its outlets. Luxury retailer Harrods was also attacked, while the UK Ministry of Justice revealed that hundreds of thousands of people’s data could have been exposed in a breach of its Legal Aid service.
While UK police have said they are investigating the M&S and Co-op hacks to see if they are related, there is no evidence of any direct connection with the breach of Adidas at the time of writing.
However, Comparitech consumer privacy advocate Paul Bischoff warned that Adidas customers need to be vigilant, as bad actors could use their breached data to launch further attacks.
Bischoff said: “Adidas customers should be on the lookout for targeted phishing emails from scammers posing as Adidas or a related company. Never click on links or attachments in unsolicited emails.
Thankfully, the breach didn’t affect payment info or passwords, and I doubt that Adidas stores customers’ Social Security numbers, so the breached data probably doesn’t contain anything that could lead to direct financial loss.”
