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Victoria’s Secret laid bare after security incident takes down systems

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Outage has lasted for several days now

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(Image credit: Shutterstock/Chor muang)
  • Victoria's Secret has confirmed suffering a cyberattack
  • Company website and some systems taken offline following incident
  • No one claimed responsibility yet, but customers should still be on alert

American lingerie and beauty retailer Victoria’s Secret has suffered a cyberattack which forced the company to shut down its websites and “some in-store services”.

In a short announcement posted on the company’s main website (as well as national websites), it was said a “security incident” had been identified, and “as a precaution”, the website and some in-store services were taken down.

“We appreciate your patience during this process. In the meantime, our Victoria’s Secret and PINK stores remain open and we look forward to serving you,” the announcement reads.

Was it ransomware?

So far, specific details on the incident remain scarce, as the company did not detail the nature of the attack, the identity of the attackers, or the methods used to compromise the systems.

A Victoria's Secret spokesperson told FOX Business the company triggered its incident response protocols following the incident.

"Third-party experts are engaged, and we took down our website and some in store services as a precaution," the statement read. "We are working to quickly and securely restore operations."

Usually, when a company is forced to shut down its IT network, either partially or completely, it is to contain a ransomware attack, and prevent threat actors from moving laterally and exfiltrating sensitive customer data.

Since no threat actors have yet claimed responsibility for the attack, this is pure speculation at this point. We do know that the company’s systems have been offline for at least three days, at press time.

Victoria’s Secret is a leading global lingerie and beauty retailer, so it’s no wonder it was a target. As of February 1, 2025, the company had 31,000 total employees, including 13,000 full-time and 18,000 part-time employees, according to Stock Analysis.

It has more than 1,300 stores around the world and in 2024, it reported annual revenue of $6.23 billion.

Via TechCrunch

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Sead Fadilpašić

Sead is a seasoned freelance journalist based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He writes about IT (cloud, IoT, 5G, VPN) and cybersecurity (ransomware, data breaches, laws and regulations). In his career, spanning more than a decade, he’s written for numerous media outlets, including Al Jazeera Balkans. He’s also held several modules on content writing for Represent Communications.

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