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Why did someone hack TOMS Shoes?

Answer: To tell people to get offline.

Someone out there had an anti-technology message to share with the world over the weekend, and they decided to turn to technology to get the word out.

An unknown hacker, who identified themselves as “nathan,” got into TOMS Shoes’ email system and sent a message to customers. In the subject line, they wrote “Toms hacked by nice man,” followed by a short message in the body telling people to just unplug for a while: “hey you, don't look at a digital screen all day, theres a world out there that you're missing out on … just felt like some people needed that ^^(:.” 

TOMS posted on Twitter on Sunday that the company was actively investigating the incident but did not comment on whether any of customers’ personal information may have been compromised. Given the hacker’s message, however, there's a good chance that wasn’t the case.

Kate is a senior copy editor in Northern California. She holds a bachelor's degree in English with a minor in professional writing from the University of California, Davis.