The Foschini Group, the South African retail owner of Hobbs, Phase Eight and Whistles, confirmed that its UK arm found a cybersecurity incident on October 11. Two days on, several systems at TFG London remain offline.
Stores stayed open, but the company warned that some website functions may be unavailable and that orders placed on or after Sunday could arrive late. Customers were told by email that a third-party provider handles payments and that, on current evidence, card details were not caught up in the event.
Still digging
It is a different story for other customer records. TFG said it is still investigating whether personal information escaped and will contact affected people or organisations if it finds proof of a compromise. The company has not said how the intruder got in, whether ransomware was involved, or when systems will return.
The disruption looks contained to the three UK brands. White Stuff and Inside Story, plus the group’s African and Australian operations, run on separate infrastructure and are unaffected. TFG said it brought in outside specialists and notified UK authorities.
Fashion retail is having a bad season. Last week ASOS told customers it had been breached after an attacker impersonated an employee to reach an account. Hennes and Mauritz is separately investigating claims from the ShinyHunters crew. No evidence yet ties the three cases together.
