International cosmetics company Lush announces on 20th of January 2011 that repeat hacking attempts have prompted them to close down their entire UK ecommerce site Lush.co.uk. It would seem that another large company has been forced offline for at least a few days.
The official notice on the page replacing the online store states that the site has been the victim of hackers and that ' 24 hour security monitoring has shown us that we are still being targeted and there are continuing attempts to re-enter. We refuse to put out customers at risk of another entry - so have decided to completely retire this version of our website.'‘
Customers who have ordered from the Lush website between the 4th of October 2010 and the 20th of January 2011 have been advised to contact their banks as Lush say that there is a possibility that card details have been compromised.
Via the informational web page, Lush announces that they are currently setting up a temporary website. This should be running by the end of the week but may only take Paypal payments to start with.
A Blow for Beauty Retail Before the Valentines Day Rush
With beauty retail one of the few industries riding out the recession in a little comfort, this development might unsettle the owners of many large beauty e commerce sites. Recent widely reported large-scale hacking attempts have been directed at financial institutions, or those perceived to have some political agenda and influence: As reported by Andy Bloxham and Stephen Swinford for the Daily Telegraph on the 9th of December 2010, 'hackers decided to attack the Paypal website after it suspended payments to the Wikileaks fundraising account.'
While the attack on Lush.co.uk may simply have been from one hacker, rather than from a group with a political agenda, will the closure of a large site force beauty retail companies to work harder to safeguard the data of their customers and to maintain their online trade? With potentially three months of financial data compromised, how will this affect consumer confidence when shopping online for beauty products?
Lush may well be grateful that the timing for a site closure could have been much worse: With the Christmas rush over, the New Year is a traditionally quiet time in beauty retail. Yet, with products, such as massage bars and bath ballistics, the company will be hurrying to get their internet store up and running again before Valentines Day. With October to December the busiest time of the year in beauty retail, any hacker would have found it the most profitable period to try and access card data.
Quirky British Cosmetics Company Fights Hackers With Lemming Puppets
Famed for being the brand that popularized fizzing bath ballistics, bursting with petals and glitter, as well as vegan cosmetics before they were fashionable, Lush have reacted to this hacking attempt with characteristic humor. Linking the information page to their Youtube Channel, Lush have provided a video of lemming puppets performing Elbow’s “One Day Like This”. At least this should provide some fun and relaxation for customers who were rather hoping to browse for a fragrant and bright colored winter cosmetics treat.
As The Ecologist reported in 2010, Lush now has 675 shops in 43 countries. With this large presence on the high street and still a functioning telephone mail order service, this latest hacking attempt will no doubt just prove to be irritation, rather than causing any serious financial difficulty for the company. However in the wake of this , both beauty companies and customers will need to be vigilant about protecting personal data when shopping online.
Shefali Choudhury - Writer and visual artist, Suite Beauty topic editor, Shefali spent 10 years in professional makeup artistry from beauty to blood ...
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