United Kingdom
Adidas says customer data stolen in cyberattack
- Adidas has disclosed that it has been affected by a cyberattack in which customer’s personal information has been stolen.
- The company stated that criminals obtained “certain consumer data” which “mainly consists” of the contact information of individuals who have previously contacted the Adidas help desk. Adidas stated that customer’s passwords, credit card data, and other payment data were not compromised.
- “We remain fully committed to protecting the privacy and security of our consumers, and sincerely regret any inconvenience or concern caused by this incident,” said the company in a statement on its website.
- This attack is the latest in a series of cyberattacks on UK-based retailers, coming after major incidents involving companies such as Marks & Spencer (M&S) and The Co-op.* M&S expects the cyberattack it has been affected by will cost it approximately £300m, with disruption continuing until July. The Co-op has experienced empty shelves and disrupted payments after it was hacked.
ICO head office to move to Manchester
- The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) will relocate its head office to Manchester in autumn 2026, specifically to the Circle Square development on Oxford Road.
- The ICO’s head office has been based in Wilmslow for the past forty years. The decision to move follows a detailed review of options ahead of the upcoming expiration of the lease on its current premises at Wycliffe House.
- Jen Green, the ICO Executive Director of Strategy and Resources said: “Our relocation to Circle Square will create a working environment that better supports how we operate now and into the future. The new space will provide a more flexible, collaborative setting for our teams, with improved access to the facilities and connections we need.”
United States
Vitoria’s Secret takes down US website after ‘security incident’
- Intimate apparel retailer Victoria’s Secret has taken down its US website and halted some in-store services following what it has described as a “security incident”. The company’s UK website was unaffected.
- In a statement, the company detailed the action it has been taking. “We immediately enacted our response protocols, third-party experts are engaged, and we took down our website and some in-store services as a precaution,” it said.
- It has not given any further details about the nature of the incident or confirmed when it began.
- The company, which is based in Ohio, in the U.S., operates approximately 1,350 retail stores across 70 countries. Its share price fell by ~7% on Wednesday when it first issued a media statement about the incident.
- This incident at Victoria’s Secret adds to the growing international trend of cyberattacks targeting retailers.
Europe
Italy updates National Cybersecurity and Data Protection Framework
- Italy has released an updated National Cybersecurity and Data Protection Framework that, while presented as a national initiative, closely follows the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity Framework 2.0, signalling a move toward international standards.
- The framework is a voluntary, non-binding guide designed to help organisations of all sizes manage cybersecurity and privacy risks in a practical and scalable way.
- A key update is the addition of nine privacy-specific controls addressing important issues such as notifying data subjects, ensuring lawful processing, and managing privacy risks within cybersecurity practices.
- The framework was developed through collaboration between academia, government, and industry, with support and guidance from Italy’s National Cybersecurity Agency.
German consortium in talks to build AI data centre, Telekom says
- Deutsche Telekom, a partially state-owned German telecommunications company, has partnered with SAP, a German multinational software company, web hosting firm Ionos, and unlisted retailer Schwarz to seek European Union support to build a data processing centre for artificial intelligence (AI) in Germany.
- This year, the European Commission revealed plans to provide $20 billion (~£14.77 billion) in funding to construct AI data centres in Europe to keep pace with the U.S. and China.
- This German consortium will build one of the five centres, known as AI gigafactories, that the EU plans to support. This EU project aims to help the EU develop its own AI models, but it faces various potential challenges, including securing chips, identifying suitable locations, and ensuring sufficient electricity supply.
- “The window of opportunity to create our own independent infrastructure for this is now,” Christine Knackfuss-Nicolic, chief technology officer of Deutsche Telekom’s T-Systems division stated.
International
Telegram, Musk-owned xAI partner to distribute Grok to messaging app’s users
- Elon Musk’s AI startup, xAI, will pay Telegram, a Russian cloud-based messaging app, $300 million (~£222 million) to launch its Grok AI chatbot on the messaging platform, aiming to tap into Telegram’s more than one billion users and boost its position in the competitive AI market.
- As part of the one-year agreement, xAI will share half of all subscription revenue generated through Telegram. The $300 million payment will be made in cash and stock, according to Telegram founder Pavel Durov.
- Durov emphasized that xAI will only access data that Telegram users explicitly share with Grok during direct interactions. This deal could provide xAI with valuable user data to improve and train its AI models.
- With many open-source data sources depleted, AI companies face growing challenges in acquiring quality data. This has led firms like Meta to rely more on users’ public interactions with AI to train their models.
- X’s privacy policy states that the platform uses public user posts to train its AI models, but it remains unclear whether xAI will use Telegram data in the same way.
