2018, the year hackers put a target on the fashion industry

New York - This year, the world of fashion has been strongly affected by cyberattacks. From Amazon to Macy’s, we review the main hacks targeting the international textile industry.

Hackers, cyberattacks and cybersecurity are some of the new words that have been cast within the everyday language of virtually every industry. The world of fashion has not been an exception: millions of consumers around the world have seen their personal information compromised in attacks on online fashion platforms, department stores and international clothing brands.

Department stores, hackers’ favorite target

In April, Canada’s Hudson's Bay Co., the group that owns Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks Off Fifth and Lord & Taylor in North America, revealed that millions of its American users were to see their personal data and card information compromised due to a security breach. At that time, the cybersecurity company Gemini Advisory LLC calculated that the credit and personal information was stolen at 83 Saks Fifth Avenue or Saks Off Fifth stores, as well as at all Lord & Taylor branches. According to this report, approximately 125,000 of the five million pledged records would have been released for sale on the 'dark web'.

In the summer it was Macy’s the turn for Macy's. The retail group revealed that Third parties gained access to accounts on Macys.com and Bloomingdales.com using valid usernames and passwords. The data theft took place between April 26 and June 12. Macy's said that "a small number" of its customers were affected by the attack, but did not specify how many and only said that the data was obtained from a source that It was not Macy's.

Millions of Adidas customers affected in the United States

The same month we also echoed how the commercial website of Adidas in the USA suffered a considerable cyberattack: millions of users of the sports fashion giant were affected.

SHEIN online fashion platform

At the end of summer, the online fashion company SHEIN acknowledged having been a victim of hackers . The perpetrators of this attack had access to the encrypted emails and passwords of 6.42 million customers, according to the company. "On August 22, SHEIN realised that the personal identification information of its customers was stolen during a sophisticated cyber-criminal attack on its computer network," the retailer said in a statement posted on its UK website. The note, published on September 21, indicates that as a result, the company hired an international forensic cybersecurity firm and an international law firm to investigate the incident.

The subsidiary of C&A in Brazil, hacked

The Brazilian subsidiary of the fashion chain C&A confirmed in September that it recently suffered a cyberattack on its gift card platform, exposing the personal data of thousands of customers. As revealed by the Brazilian media and confirmed by C&A in a corporate communication, during the attack, data was filtered from customers who bought gift cards, such as identification numbers and email addresses. Among other information, those responsible for the hack would have accessed other data such as the amount loaded on the cards, the order number and the purchase data.

Amazon suffers data breach right before Black Friday

Last but definitely not least was Amazon. The e-commerce behemoth suffered a major data breach that saw customers’ emails and names being posted on the company’s website shortly before this year’s Black Friday sale. The website announced in an email that the breach was the result of a technical issue. The company reached out to affected customers with the following message: “Our website inadvertently disclosed your email address or name and email address due to a technical error. The issue has been fixed. This is not a result of anything you have done, and there is no need for you to change your password or take any other action. The impacted customers have been contacted.”

"Amazon takes all security-related matters very seriously and your account security is our top priority. We have policies and security measures in place to ensure that your personal information remains secure."

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