Shares in Asos fell 10 per cent on Tuesday after the British online fashion retailer warned that some customer information may have been accessed following the unauthorised sending of a notification to shoppers.

The group said it was investigating unauthorised activity involving third-party platforms that it uses to communicate with customers.

It said it took immediate action to restrict access to the platforms and was working with internal and external specialist advisers, as well as all relevant authorities.

“Basic personal information including name and contact details may have been accessed. We do not believe that payment-card information or account passwords, were impacted,” it said.

The retailer’s website and app were operating as normal, with no current disruption to operations, it said.

British companies and institutions have been increasingly hit by aggressive and regular cyber and ransomware attacks in recent years. The British Library, a blood testing service, the London Underground, Marks & Spencer, the Co-op and Jaguar Land Rover are some that have suffered months of disruption due to such breaches.

The notifications to Asos shoppers – addressed to Asos’ data protection officer and IT department – read, “we have fully compromised the Snowflake instance. Engage with us, or we will leak it.”

Snowflake is a data storage firm, whose tools are used by thousands of companies.

A hacking group calling itself the “Xuanye group” claimed credit for compromising Asos’ Snowflake repository in the push alert sent to users of the retailer’s app.

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