Estee Lauder Hit by Cyber Attack, With Some Business Operations Disrupted

Cosmetics maker Estee Lauder on Tuesday said a hacker had obtained some data from its systems, with the cyber incident causing, and expected to further cause, disruption to parts of the company’s business operations.

The MAC Cosmetics owner was working to restore the affected systems and had implemented measures to secure its operations, including taking down some of its systems to mitigate the incident, the company said in a statement.

Estee Lauder, which also owns cosmetics brands like Bobbi Brown and Tom Ford Beauty, did not reveal further details about the impact on its operations, but said it was trying to understand the nature and scope of the breached data.

The incident comes at a crucial time for the cosmetics maker, which in May forecast weaker sales and profit for the year than previously estimated, blaming slow recovery at duty-free and travel destinations, especially in Asia.

A spree of data breaches have affected several U.S.-listed companies over the past year.

In September, Grand Theft Auto maker Take-Two Interactive Software confirmed early footage leak of the popular video game, prior to its release, while ride-hailing company Uber was forced to shut several internal communications for a week after a cyber-security incident.

Wireless carrier T-Mobile in January faced its second major cyber attack in less than two years, which exposed over 37 million accounts.

In its statement, Estee Lauder said it was in contact with law enforcement and cyber-security experts, but did not respond to Reuters’ request for further comment outside regular hours.

The New York-based company did not name the hacker or the hacking entity.

(Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal and Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru; editing by Sonia Cheema)