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Lingerie firm Victoria’s Secret has taken down its US website and says it has halted some in-store services following what it has described as a “security incident”.<\/p>\n
The normal site has been replaced by a customer notice which says it is “working around the clock to fully restore operations”.<\/p>\n
It says its stores – and those of its spin-off, PINK – are still open for business.<\/p>\n
The company’s UK website is unaffected.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the company detailed the action it has been taking.<\/p>\n
“We immediately enacted our response protocols, third-party experts are engaged, and we took down our website and some in-store services as a precaution,” it said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
It has not given any further details about the nature of the incident or confirmed when it began.<\/p>\n
The company which is based in Ohio, in the US, operates around 1,350 retail stores across 70 countries.<\/p>\n
Its share price fell by approximately 7% on Wednesday, when it first issued a media statement about the incident.<\/p>\n
Some customers have taken to social media to complain about the impact it is having on them.<\/p>\n
“How can I check my order status when your page has been down for 2 days?!? And no one answers the phone either!”, wrote one on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The incident at Victoria’s Secret comes after a number of major UK retailers have been hit by major cyber attacks.<\/p>\n M&S says it expects the hack it has been affected by will cost it around \u00a3300m<\/a>, with disruption continuing until July.<\/p>\n The Co-op experienced empty shelves and disrupted payments after it was hacked.<\/p>\n Customer data has been stolen from both firms.<\/p>\n The cyber criminals who say they were responsible told the BBC<\/a> that they targeted the firms with ransomware, which involves scrambling IT systems and telling companies they will only be restored in exchange for payment.<\/p>\n The police told BBC News that the crime gang Scattered Spider – some of whom are thought to be teenagers – are among the suspects.<\/a><\/p>\n Vonny Gamot, from online protection company McAfee, recommended any affected customers should take immediate action such as changing passwords and enabling two-factor authentication on accounts that support it.<\/p>\n She also said people should not wait to find out if they had been directly caught up in the cyber attacks.<\/p>\n “Even if you haven’t received notification from the brand or retailer which has been impacted, assume your information may have been compromised if you’ve been a customer,” she said.<\/p>\n “Companies often take weeks to identify all affected individuals.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n