Owner of fashion brands Hobbs and Phase Eight becomes the latest retailer to be hit by a cyber attack

The parent company of fashion brands including Hobbs, Phase Eight and Whistles has become the latest retailer targeted by cyber criminals.

South African retail group The Foschini Group (TFG) said it had become aware of a 'cybersecurity incident' on Sunday, affecting its subsidiary TFG London. 

It said it had identified the attack, which affected some of its IT systems, on October 11 and had engaged external experts.

‘Our investigation is ongoing and we are working hard to get all our systems back up and running as quickly and safely as we can,’ it said in an email to customers.

TFG London said there was no reason to believe customers’ payment information was at risk, although orders made on or after Sunday may be delayed. Its stores are open as normal.

‘Based on our investigation so far, we have no reason to believe that payment information is at risk. As our investigation continues, we will be working to identify if any sensitive information related to our customers was impacted,’ it said.

‘If we determine that your personal information was affected, you will be directly informed. We do not believe it is necessary to change your account login information at this time.

‘Our investigation is ongoing, and our teams are working tirelessly to get all our systems running again safely.

‘We know this news may be unsettling, and we’re committed to keeping you updated as we have more information to share. We are very sorry for any inconvenience this incident has caused.’

It comes after H&M said it was investigating claims it was targeted in a cyber attack last week.

The Swedish fashion powerhouse said it is looking into a potential incident made by a group called Shinyhunters, which has previously claimed it was behind the attack on Jaguar Land Rover.

It follows an attack on Asos last week, which saw hackers directly communicate with customers via an app notification.

Messages sent by the hackers to customers' phones said they had 'fully compromised the Snowflake instance', referring to the online platform that collects data, including that of customers.

The retailer confirmed the ‘basic contact details’ of users had been taken in the security breach but said it did not believe payment card details or passwords were affected.

Asos said an 'unauthorised party' gained access by impersonating a trusted contact to get log-in information.

It is now believed that the cyber criminals could have access to more information than Asos originally confirmed. Names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and past searches could all have been breached, the BBC reported.