Snowflake shares fell 2% on possible cyberattack risk tied to Asos data

Snowflake shares fell by roughly 2% on Tuesday morning after alleged hackers posted a threatening message on the mobile app of British online retailer Asos. In the message, the attackers claimed that the Snowflake data environment used by Asos had been fully compromised.

The message was addressed to Asos's data protection officer and IT staff. The alleged attackers claimed they had gained access to the company's cloud data platform and threatened to release customer information unless Asos got in touch with them. The message also included a Telegram channel.

Snowflake provides corporate clients with cloud-based data storage and management services. The platform has previously been linked to several high-profile data breaches affecting dozens of major companies, which added to market concerns following the attackers' claims.

By midmorning on Tuesday, Asos had neither confirmed nor denied that its systems had actually been breached, nor had it indicated the potential scale of any compromise. The British retailer uses Snowflake to store and manage large volumes of customer data.

The incident raised questions about the security of data hosted on Snowflake's infrastructure. Under UK data protection law, companies are required to notify the regulator within three days of a confirmed data breach.

Against this backdrop, Asos shares came under much heavier pressure. The company's share price dropped 10.2% to 450.9 pence. During the session, the stock touched as low as 435.5 pence, having opened trading at 485 pence. Over the same period, the FTSE 250 index was showing gains.