Pandora has joined the list of retailers hit by cyber attacks, with the luxury jewellery brand confirming an incident on August 5 where it informed customers that "some customer information was accessed through a third-party platform that we use."
"Only very common types of data were copied by the attacker – specifically name, birthdate, and email address. We'd like to stress that no passwords, credit card details or similar confidential data were involved in this incident."
Earlier this year, the º£½ÇÊÓƵ's retail sector suffered from a wave of cyber attacks, impacting major names such as M&S, Harrods, and The Co-op, as reported by .
M&S reported an estimated £300m blow to its annual profits due to the cyber attack and alerted customers that some of their data had been compromised.
The vast amounts of consumer data gathered for marketing, combined with sometimes outdated security measures, have made retail companies prime targets for cybercriminals.
Retailers' focus on convenience, scale, and speed has often led to insufficient investment in cybersecurity.
Organised cybercrime groups, including the increasingly active Scattered Spider, are taking advantage of these vulnerabilities.
Cybersecurity specialist Christoph Cemper cautioned Pandora customers to be vigilant against phishing emails.
"Phishing attacks, if successful, can allow hackers to steal vital information, or lead to financial loss if the user clicks any links or downloads malicious attachments," he advised.
Pandora has stressed its commitment to safeguarding consumer information: "Protecting your privacy is extremely important to us. While incidents like these have unfortunately become more common in recent years, especially among global companies, we take this matter very seriously."
Nevertheless, Cemper argued that retailers could take additional steps to secure customer information.
"It is crucial that companies employ effective detection tools which can monitor for suspicious activities... AI-driven threat detection is becoming more essential in identifying suspicious activity early on," he said.
