Latitude Financial has confirmed that the cyber hack on its systems in March 2023 was far worse than originally thought, with around 8 million people's data now believed to be stolen. The attack is the largest-known data breach on a financial institution in Australia.
Of this data, the company now thinks 7.9 million driver’s licence numbers were stolen, with 40% or 3.2 million being provided to the non-bank lender in the past 10 years.
Who is Latitude Financial?
Latitude Financial is an Australian company offering digital banking services including a range of loans, insurance and credit cards. Some of its credit card products, such as Latitude Go Mastercard and Latitude Gem Visa, offered long-term interest-free shopping at partners including Harvey Norman, JB HiFi and The Good Guys.
Until late February it also offered a buy now, pay later service called LatitudePay.
They say the attack appeared to have originated from "a major vendor used by Latitude".
This resulted in the attacker obtaining Latitude employee login credentials, which were then used to steal personal information held by other service providers.
Who has been affected?
Former and current Latitude customers in Australia and New Zealand dating back to 2005 have been affected.
7.9 million driver’s licence numbers were stolen
Around 53,000 passport numbers were stolen
Under 100 customers had their monthly financial statements stolen
An additional 6.1 million personal records were stolen
Latitude Financial says they are contacting those customers affected by the attack. They will reimburse customers who need to replace their stolen documentation.
What to do if you think you’re at risk:
Get support from Latitude online or by phone:
Australia - 1300 793 416 9am-6pm AEDT, Monday-Friday
New Zealand - 0800 777 885 9am-6pm NZST, Monday-Friday
(Please be aware that Latitude are experiencing longer than usual call wait times)
Get help with identity theft from IDCARE - Australia and New Zealand’s national identity and cyber support service:
Visit IDCARE or call 1800 595 160 (AUS) and 0800 121 068 (NZ) using referral code LAT23
Replace your Driver's Licence if you have been told that your licence data was stolen
Read up about what to do if your Australian or New Zealand passport was compromised
Be vigilant with all online communications and transactions
Stay alert for phishing scams
Do not open texts from unknown numbers
Change passwords regularly with “strong” passwords and not re-using old ones
Remember that Latitude WILL NOT contact customers asking for passwords or sensitive information
Report any incident to ReportCyber (AUS) and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (NZ)
If you have any questions or need extra support, we're here to help you anytime in any language. Simply start a chat with us via the home screen of the Sonder app.
Information sourced from: ABC, SMH, Latitude Financial
Image credit: Pixabay at Pexels
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