Yahoo Finance Latitude Financial cyberattack worse than expected: 14 million records stolen
Nearly 8 million drivers’ licence numbers and more than 6 million customer records have been stolen.
Latitude Financial’s cyberattack is far worse than initially thought, with hackers stealing 14 million customer records, including driver licence numbers, passport numbers and personal information.
The lender first announced the data hack on March 16 and said it initially believed more than 300,000 customers had their personal details compromised.
Now, Latitude Financial has revealed 7.9 million Australian and New Zealand driver licence numbers were stolen - 40 per cent of which were provided in the past 10 years.
Also read: JB Hi-Fi, Kogan and The Good Guys customers affected: LatitudePay closes
Also read: Millions of Good Guys customers impacted by data breach
A further 6.1 million customer records were stolen, dating back to at least 2005, of which 94 per cent were provided before 2013. These records include information such as names, addresses, telephone numbers and dates of birth.
In addition, 53,000 passport numbers were stolen, and fewer than 100 customers had their monthly financial statements stolen.
Latitude Financial is a provider of credit cards, personal loans and other forms of finance, including to retailers such as Harvey Norman, JB HI-Fi, David Jones and The Good Guys.
‘We apologise’
“It is hugely disappointing that such a significant number of additional customers and applicants have been affected by this incident. We apologise unreservedly,” Latitude Financial CEO Ahmed Fahour said.
“We are committed to working closely with impacted customers and applicants to minimise the risk and disruption to them, including reimbursing the cost if they choose to replace their ID document. We are also committed to a full review of what has occurred.”
Latitude said there had been no suspicious activity observed on its systems since the hack was announced on March 16.
Latitude is writing to all customers, past customers and applicants whose information was compromised.
“We urge all our customers to be vigilant and on the lookout for suspicious behaviour relating to their accounts. We will never contact customers requesting their passwords,” Fahour said.
Follow Yahoo Finance on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter, and subscribe to our free daily newsletter.
