Luxury goods company Cartier has confirmed that customer data has been stolen as part of a cyber attack. The French fashion brand said ata such as customer names and email addresses were taken, but financial information and passwords were not.
North Face has emailed some customers saying it discovered a “small-scale” attack in April this year. The UK’s National Crime Agency says it is investigating.
It is the latest in a series of high-profile cyber attacks on big-name brands. The likes of Marks and Spencer ( M&S ), the Co-op, Adidas, Victoria’s Secret, and Harrods have all been hit in the past few months.
In a statement issued to its customers, Cartier said: “We are writing to inform you that an unauthorized-party gained temporary access to our system and obtained limited client information,” Cartier stated in the data breach notification.
“We contained the issue and have further enhanced the protection of our systems and data.”
Cartier warned that the information could be used for future illegal activities. .Chris Hauk, consumer privacy advocate at Pixel Privacy, said: “While it doesn’t appear that any financial information has been leaked, the information gleaned in the breach does include enough info to allow bad actors to send phishing emails and text messages claiming to be from Cartier, attempting to steal more of your info. Bad guys could pose as Cartier and claim to be contacting you about a previous purchase or to confirm a purchase. This could allow them to steal payment information to provide access to the victim’s accounts.”
Paul Bischoff,consumer privacy advocate at Comparitech, added: “Although the breach is concerning, it thankfully didn’t expose any data that could be used to directly harm Cartier customers. Cartier says no passwords or payment information were breached. Customers should be on the lookout for targeted phishing messages from Cartier or a related company. Never click on links or attachments in unsolicited emails and text messages.”
