ASOS app users receive apparent hacker extortion messages

ASOS users across the UK have received pop-up messages through the retailer’s app that appear to be from hackers trying to extort the company. Dozens of people told the BBC they had seen the message on their phones.

It is addressed to ASOS’s data protection officer and IT team and claims that the attackers have “fully compromised the Snowflake instance.” The message threatens to leak data unless the company engages with them.

ASOS did not immediately respond to the BBC’s request for comment. It is not known whether ASOS uses Snowflake or what data, if any, may be stored with the service.

Snowflake provides tools that companies use to collect, analyse and store data. The source report says Snowflake has been the subject of several high-profile data breaches in recent years and has been linked to incidents involving Ticketmaster and Santander. It does not establish whether the message to ASOS users reflects a breach of Snowflake or ASOS.