Latitude Financial has announced it is the victim of a “sophisticated and malicious cyberattack” which has impacted the data of hundreds of thousands of customers.
The major Australian financial service revealed details about the cyber breach in a statement to the ASX on Thursday.
About 103,000 identification documents, more than 97 per cent of which are copies of driver’s licences, and 225,000 customer records have been stolen in the cyber hit.
Latitude, which was listed on the ASX in 2021, said it “detected unusual activity on its systems” in the last couple of days.
The activity is believed to have originated from a “major vendor” used by the financial service.
“While Latitude took immediate action, the attacker was able to obtain Latitude employee login credentials before the incident was isolated,” Latitude said.
“The attacker appears to have used the employee login credentials to steal personal information that was held by two other service providers.”
As of Thursday, Latitude believes about 103,000 identification documents were stolen from the first service provider and another 225,000 customer records were stolen from the second service provider.
“Latitude is continuing to respond to this attack and is doing everything in its power to contain the incident and prevent the theft of further customer data, including isolating and removing access to some customer-facing and internal systems,” a statement read.
The major financial company apologised to customers who had been impacted, and said it was “taking immediate steps to contact them”.
Latitude said it was also working with the Australian Cyber Security Centre to investigate the breach.
The financial service announced it had also alerted law enforcement agencies and engaged cyber security specialists to help respond to the incident.
“Latitude will cooperate with authorities to investigate this attack,” Latitude told ASX.
“Our priorities are to ensure the ongoing security of our customers, our employees and our partners while continuing to deliver services.”
According to the company’s website, Latitude has 2.8 million customer accounts and more than 5,500 merchant partners in Australia and New Zealand.
It also has 5,800 accredited brokers partners across Australia.
Latitude provides financial services to a number of major retailers, including David Jones, Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi and The Good Guys.
News Source: www.skynews.com.au
