13th October 2026
The owner of fashion brands Hobbs, Whistles and Phase Eight, TFG London, has been hit by a cyber attack affecting some of its IT systems.
The company identified the incident on Sunday 11 October and is investigating with the help of external cyber security specialists.
Stores remain open, but some website functions may be unavailable while the investigation continues.
TFG says there is currently no reason to believe payment information is at risk, although the investigation into the extent of the breach is ongoing.
The incident comes a week after ASOS disclosed that an unauthorised party had accessed some personal data, including customers’ names and contact details. H&M is also investigating claims it was targeted by cyber criminals.
Susannah Streeter, Chief Investment Strategist, Wealth Club, ‘Corporate defences are looking dangerously thin amid an onslaught of cyber-attacks against businesses. This spate of infiltrations into retailers’ systems should serve as a brutal alarm call for organisations grappling with increasingly sophisticated digital threats. Big names are littering the landscape, with Marks & Spencer badly affected last year, ASOS still reeling from its breach and now household names Hobbs, Whistles and Phase Eight brought into the cyber-attack wave with the attack on TFG London’s IT systems.
It comes hot on the heels of an audacious attack on supermarket refrigeration systems in France, which saw hackers remotely manipulate cooling controls, sending temperatures soaring and leaving hundreds of stores facing spoiled food, fires and potentially millions of euros in losses.
The scale of the threat is staggering, with Gartner forecasting that global spending on information security will reach $248.9 billion this year, while Cybersecurity Ventures has estimated that cybercrime costs have expanded to $10.8 trillion annually.
That gulf underlines the enormous financial damage cyber-attacks can inflict and raises questions about vulnerabilities in systems. The amount being spent on protection is surging, with forecasts that there will be a much bigger shift away from reactive detection and response strategies towards pre-emptive solutions, reliant on advanced AI tools. It demonstrates the considerable opportunities ahead for firms at the forefront of cyber defence. It is clear that pressure is mounting on businesses to strengthen their defences as attacks become increasingly sophisticated.
Cyber security can no longer be treated as a back-office IT issue or a cost to be trimmed when budgets come under pressure. Organisations need to be shoring up their defences before attackers find a way in, rather than scrambling to contain the damage afterwards. Retailers are particularly attractive targets, sitting on valuable customer data and relying on interconnected systems to keep everything from online orders to supply chains moving. The consequences of a breach can stretch far beyond stolen information, hitting sales, disrupting operations and eroding customer trust.’
Source - wealthclub.co.uk