Cartier and NorthFace latest brands to be breached

Spate of attacks on retailers and fashion firms continues

Cartier and NorthFace have become the latest fashion brands to suffer a data breach.

Dior, Adidas and Victoria’s Secret have all admitted theft of customer information in recent days, following last month’s attacks on retailers including M&S, Co-op and Harrods.

In a letter to customers, which was shared onX, the high-end fashion and jewellery company Cartier said attackers had stolen “limited” customer information, including names, email addresses and countries of residence.

The hackers did not access credit card numbers, banking details or passwords, the company said.

Nevertheless, the theft of personal information leaves customers at a greater risk of social engineering, phishing attacks and scams.

Cartier warned those affected to watch out for “unsolicited communications or any other suspicious correspondence”.

The company says it's working with a cybersecurity company to remediate the breach and has informed the relevant authorities about the incident.

Fashion brand NorthFace also reported a breach.

“On April 23, 2025, we discovered unusual activity involving our website, thenorthface.com,” parent company VF Outdoor LLC says in a sample letter published by the Vermont Attorney General’s office. “We concluded that an attacker had launched a small-scale credential stuffing attack against our website.”

The attackers used emails and passwords obtained from another source, it claims. Where customers had used the same credentials for their NorthFace accounts the attackers may have been able to access personal information including data of birth, phone number and order history, but not financial information.

The company advised customers to change their passwords and to avoid reusing credentials between websites

The extent to which the recent attacks on fashion brands and retailers are connected is not certain. They could be copycat incidents perpetrated by different groups, possibly using shared information.

James Hadley, founder and chief innovation officer at cybersecurity vendor Immersive, said that retailers are a target due to the customer information they hold.

“Attackers already knew the retail sector had weak defences; however, the recent string of breaches will have emboldened them further.

Enterprises should be continuously stress-testing their defences, drilling their teams, and developing a cyber resilience strategy that spans the entire organisation. Anything less, and the business will be left exposed.”

Jake Moore, global cybersecurity advisor at security vendor ESET, said he hoped the recent spate of attacks will be a wakeup call for the sector.

If anything positive was to come from the recent retail attacks is the amount of extra funds and resources businesses will now put into building better defences. Companies observing the devastating aftermath of the M&S cyberattack will no doubt breathe a deep sigh of relief that it wasn’t them, while at the same time strengthening their defences in preparation for inevitable future attempts.”