Victoria’s Secret Hit By ‘Security Incident’ — Website Down, In-Store Services Disrupted
Synopsis
Shares dropped nearly 7%, and some Stocktwits users see it as a 'buy the dip' opportunity.
Victoria's Secret (VSCO) reported a "security incident" that forced the company to take its online shopping platform offline and temporarily suspend select in-store services, amid a broader rise in cyberattacks targeting retailers.
The lingerie brand hasn't offered many details on the incident, including its cause and scope. It told the media that the company is investigating the incident and "took down our website and some in-store services as a precaution."
Shares of the company, which is also working to fend off a hostile takeover, fell nearly 7% on Wednesday.
Bloomberg News, which first reported the incident before Victoria's Secret's admission, noted that employees were locked out of their email accounts.
The company halted customer care operations and some distribution center operations, and CEO Hillary Super reportedly told employees that recovery would take a while.
As of 10:20 p.m. ET on Wednesday, victoriassecret.com was not operational and carried an outage notice. The company’s physical stores remained open.
According to a Reddit post, users began reporting issues with accessing the Victoria's Secret website as early as Monday.
The incident comes after a reported series of hacks targeting popular retail brands.
Last week, Adidas said consumer data was stolen from a third-party customer service provider.
Marks & Spencer said a major cyber attack last month crippled the UK retailer's online systems and would shrink its profits by about $400 million this year.
On Stocktwits, message volume rose to 'extremely high’ levels as retail users weighed in on the incident’s impact.
One bearish user expressed frustration that the company hadn't offered additional information on what caused the incident. "Looks to be pretty operationally devastating," they said.
However, another user said, "Everyone knows it (the website) will be back up soon," and it's a "perfect buy the dip moment."
Victoria's Secret shares have lost nearly 50% this year.
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