Asos Customers Receive Rogue App Alert Claiming a Data Breach, but the Theft Is Unverified

Asos customers have reported receiving a rogue notification through the retailer's app. The message claimed the company's Snowflake instance had been fully compromised and threatened to leak data unless Asos engaged with the sender. It was addressed to Asos's data protection officer and IT team, and included a link to a Telegram channel called "Xuanye Wen Gateway". The Register has asked both Asos and Snowflake for comment.

Importantly, the notification does not on its own prove that the sender accessed Asos's Snowflake instance or any sensitive customer data. How the message was sent also remains unclear. Even so, Asos's share price reportedly fell by around 12 percent after reports of the notification, and has since recovered slightly.

Snowflake is a cloud platform for storing and analysing data. Its customers were hit by a major data theft campaign in 2024, affecting organisations including Ticketmaster, Santander and AT&T. Connor Riley Moucka later pleaded guilty to charges over a hacking spree that compromised more than 165 organisations and brought in about $2.5 million in ransom payments. Snowflake has since introduced controls that let administrators require multi-factor authentication.