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ShinyHunters linked to breach of French luxury goods house
Kering, the parent group of fashion houses including Balenciaga and Gucci, becomes the latest organisation to allegedly fall victim to ShinyHunters.
Kering, the France-based parent of luxury brands such as Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga and Gucci, has admitted the personal data of customers has been compromised following an apparent ransomware attack that is being linked to the ShinyHunters hacking collective through a wide-ranging compromise of various Salesforce instances.
The purloined data is thought to comprise personal information including names and contact details, and information on customer spending history. The firm said that no financial or credit card data was affected.
A spokesperson for the organisation told the BBC that the compromise was uncovered in June. They said: “An unauthorised third party gained temporary access to our systems and accessed limited customer data from some of our Houses. No financial information … or government-issued identification numbers, was involved in the incident.”
The BBC additionally reported that Kering says it has refused to pay a ransom. However, via Telegram chat with an alleged ShinyHunters representative claiming the attack, the broadcaster also learned that negotiations have apparently taken place. ShinyHunters apparently breached Kering’s defences in April.
Kevin Marriott, senior manager of cyber and head of security operations at Immersive, said the apparent delay likely indicated some form of negotiation to suppress the leak had indeed occurred – or possibly that the data has now been sold and is being exploited.
Nevertheless, he said, the latest attacks continue a trend of incidents affecting luxury brands, with Kering rival LVMH also being targeted.
“What makes this particular breach so concerning is that not only were emails, phone numbers and addresses taken, but the data related to customer spend may be used to prioritise the customers impacted as targets in further attacks, through targeted social engineering attacks or identity fraud,” said Marriott.
“The latest breach affecting Gucci, Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen underlines the risks luxury brands face as prominent targets for cyber crime,” added Joseph Rooke, director of risk insight at Recorded Future’s Insikt Group.
“Attackers are drawn to these companies not only because of the global recognition of their brands, but also because their customer bases include high-net-worth individuals whose personal details can be especially valuable.”
Controlling the story
ShinyHunters’ use of high-profile national broadcasters to spread its message as widely as possible has been a hallmark of the extensive cyber attack campaign the gang – and associated ‘acts’ like Scattered Spider – have conducted during 2025.
Speaking to MPs in July, Marks & Spencer chairman Archie Norman described the “unusual experience” of learning about new developments in the Scattered Spider attack on the retailer from the BBC, where reporters have been in contact with several of the hackers.
Lee Sult, chief investigator at Binalyze, said that in too many cases, victims were losing control of the narrative and allowing their attackers to cause more harm by showboating in public.
“If attackers control the narrative, they can further damage their targets’ reputation and potentially spread misinformation,” said Sult.
“Getting ahead of this and owning the story means organisations can rebut false claims with confidence. But for this to happen, investigation cannot be something that happens after the dust settles.
“Instead it should be completed in hours instead of days, bringing light into the obscure areas so attackers have less space to make up stories,” he said.
Timeline: Scattered Spider and ShinyHunters
- 22 April 2025: A cyber attack at M&S has caused significant disruption to customers, leaving them unable to make contactless payments or use click-and-collect services.
- 24 April: M&S is still unable to provide contactless payment or click-and-collect services amid a cyber attack that it says has forced it to move a number of processes offline to safeguard its customers, staff and business.
- 25 April: M&S shuts down online sales as it works to contain and mitigate a severe cyber attack on its systems.
- 29 April: An infamous hacking collective may have been behind the ongoing cyber attack on M&S that has crippled systems at the retailer and left its ecommerce operation in disarray.
- 30 April: A developing cyber incident at Co-op has forced the retailer to pull the plug on some of its IT systems as it works to contain the attack.
- 1 May: Co-op tells staff to stop using their VPNs and be wary that their communications channels may be being monitored, as a cyber attack on the organisation continues to develop.
- 1 May: Harrods confirms it is the latest UK retailer to experience a cyber attack, shutting off a number of systems in an attempt to lessen the impact.
- 2 May: The National Cyber Security Centre confirms it is providing assistance to M&S, Co-op and Harrods as concerns grow among UK retailers.
- 7 May: No end is yet in sight for UK retailers subjected to apparent ransomware attacks.
- 13 May: M&S is instructing all of its customers to change their account passwords after a significant amount of data was stolen in a DragonForce ransomware attack.
- 14 May: Google’s threat intel analysts are aware of a number of in-progress cyber attacks against US retailers linked to the same gang that supposedly attacked M&S and Co-op in the UK.
- 20 May: Cold chain services provider Peter Green Chilled, which supplies the likes of Aldi, Sainsbury’s and Tesco, has been forced to halt operations after succumbing to a ransomware attack.
- 4 June: A threat group is using voice phishing to trick targeted organisations into sharing sensitive credentials, according to Google. (Cybersecurity Dive)
- 11 June: So-called Black Swan events expose the blind spots in even the most sophisticated forecasting models, signaling a need to rethink how businesses, and those investing in them, quantify and prepare for cyber risk.
- 13 June: The recent spate of cyber attacks on UK retailers has to be a wake-up call to build more cyber resilience into digital supply chains and fortify against social engineering attacks.
- 17 June: Following a series of high-profile attacks on prominent retailers and consumer brands, a group of criminal hackers appears to be expanding their targeting to the insurance sector.
- 20 June: The UK’s Cyber Monitoring Centre has published its first in-depth assessment of a major incident, reflecting on the impact of and lessons learned from cyber attacks on M&S and Co-op.
- 26 June: US authorities have unsealed charges against 25-year-old hacker Kai West, aka IntelBroker, accusing him of being behind multiple cyber attacks.
- 27 June: Multiple reports are emerging of cyber attacks on airlines – Google Cloud’s Mandiant believes them to be linked.
- 2 July: Australian flag carrier Qantas is investigating significant data theft of personal information for up to 6 million customers after a third-party platform used by its call centre was compromised.
- 2 July: A developing cyber attack at Australian airline Qantas that started at a third-party call centre is already being tentatively attributed to the same gang that hit UK retailers. Find out more and learn about the next steps for those affected.
- 8 July: The government should extend ransomware reporting mandates to businesses to help gather more intelligence and better support victims, says M&S chairman Archie Norman.
- 9 July: Australian flag carrier begins notifying millions of individuals after a cyber attack on a call centre, confirming that while financial and passport details are safe, a significant volume of other personal information was compromised.
- 10 July: Police have made four arrests in connection with a trio of cyber attacks on UK retailers Marks & Spencer, Co-op and Harrods.
- 14 July: French luxury goods retailer LVMH has disclosed multiple cyber attacks in 2025 so far, and their impact is now spreading to the UK as a new incident affecting Louis Vuitton comes to light.
- 16 July: Microsoft warns users over notable evolutions in Scattered Spider's attack playbook, and beefs up some of the defensive capabilities it offers to customers in response.
- 16 July: Co-op chief executive Shirine Khoury-Haq has revealed that all the personal data of all 6.5 million of its members was compromised in the April 2025 cyber attack on its systems.
- 24 July: Cleaning products manufacturer Clorox fell victim to a Scattered Spider social engineering attack two years ago – it blames its IT helpdesk provider, Cognizant.
- 30 July: CISA, the FBI, NCSC and others have clubbed together to update previous guidance on Scattered Spider's playbook, warning of new social engineering tactics and exploitation of legitimate tools, among other things.
- 7 August: Air France - KLM alerts authorities of a data breach in which threat actors were able to get away with names, email addresses, phone numbers, and more. (Dark Reading)
- 7 August: ShinyHunters is back, with low-tech hacks that nonetheless manage to bring down international megaliths like Google, Cisco, and Adidas. (Dark Reading)
- 11 August: Computer Weekly gets under the skin of an ongoing wave of ShinyHunters cyber attacks orchestrated via social engineering against Salesforce users.
- 12 August: ReliaQuest researchers present new evidence that firms up a potential link, or outright partnership, between the ShinyHunters and Scattered Spider cyber gangs.
- 18 August: A campaign of voice-based social engineering attacks targeting users of Salesforce’s services appears to have struck HR platform Workday.
- 19 August: Millions of people are supposedly affected by a breach at Allianz Insurance arising via attacks on Salesforce (Dark Reading).
- 2 September: Jaguar Land Rover reports a cyber attack has ‘severely disrupted’ its vehicle production and retail operations, recalling similar attacks on other prominent British brands this year.
- 5 September: The recent cyber attack on Jaguar Land Rover is keeping workers out of plants as possible attack group identity becomes public.
- 9 September: Qantas executives are to take a pay cut in the wake of the recent cyber attack on the airline's systems (Dark Reading).
- 10 September: Carmaker Jaguar Land Rover revealed that data was stolen in the cyber attack that began on 31 August, as its production line continues to be affected.
- 12 September: M&S chief digital and technology officer Rachel Higham steps back from her role in the wake of the April 2025 cyber attack on the retailer’s systems.
