The owner of high-street fashion brands Hobbs and Whistles has been hit by a cyber attack, marking the second hack on a UK retailer in the space of a week.

South African retail group The Foschini Group (TFG) said it became aware of the “cybersecurity incident” on Sunday, affecting its UK subsidiary TFG London, with “certain of its IT systems” impacted – specifically its Phase Eight, Hobbs and Whistles brands.

But it said there is “no reason to believe that payment information is at risk”.

Other high street brands, including Inside Story and White Stuff, are not affected.

TFG said it had reported the incident to the relevant UK authorities.

The group added that its operations in TFG Africa and TFG Australia were not affected.

TFG London said: “On Sunday, 11 October, TFG London identified a cybersecurity incident affecting some of our IT systems, specifically impacting our Phase Eight, Hobbs, and Whistles brands.

“We are actively investigating and working with external cybersecurity specialists.

“Stores are open as normal, but some of our brands’ website capabilities may not be available as the investigation continues.

“We apologise for any disruption and will provide additional updates to our customers as appropriate.”

Customers who placed an order with Phase Eight, Hobbs or Whistles before Sunday were told their purchase would be processed and delivered as normal.

TFG London said there could be delays in orders placed after Sunday, but added there was no need to resubmit anything.

The subsidiary said returns could be made in store, adding it was working on a solution for postal returns and would keep customers informed.

TFG London first entered the UK market in 2015 after buying Phase Eight, and has since added womenswear brands Whistles and Hobbs, homeware brand Inside Story and lifestyle brand White Stuff to its portfolio. Headquartered in London, the subsidiary counts more than 3,000 employees and operates across the UK, Europe, America and Asia.

The attack on TFG London comes a week after fast fashion business Asos said an “unauthorised party” had gained access to some personal data, including names and contact details.

Asos customers received a phone alert saying that the retailer had been hacked, which claimed the data storage firm Snowflake had been compromised.

Snowflake later said the breach was not caused by a vulnerability or flaw with its platform.

On Monday, it was reported that H&M was investigating claims it was targeted by a cybercriminal last week.

The Swedish fashion giant said it was looking into a potential cybersecurity incident carried out by a group called ShinyHunters, The Times reported.

Jennifer Williams, a cybersecurity expert and Managing Director at Secarma, explained that retailers are often targeted as they hold “an increasing amount of valuable customer data through apps and accounts”.

“They also rely heavily on digital systems to continue trading, so even an incident that doesn't expose payment details can cause significant ripple effects,” she added.

"Even modern businesses still operate on old applications, and so do their suppliers. This means that despite having strong cybersecurity practices in place, they can still be exposed through one of these platforms.

“Access accumulates over time, so organisations must check who has access to what and remove unnecessary privileges.

“If one compromised account can access several critical systems, a single breach will cause much wider disruption.”