Latitude Financial revealed a cyber attack using staff logins impacts approximately 225,000 customers. It was said by the company that they detected “unusual activity” on the system.Latitude financial annouced announced the hack on Thursday morning via the ASX.
The financial service company offers digital payment products, loans, and insurance. Latitude said that the hack obtained the login details of an employee. Using those credentials, they were able to steal customer records and driver’s licenses.
Associate Professor Rob Nichollas from the UNSW Institute for Cybersecurity stated that hackers had stolen information, but there is a lack of clarity regarding the kind of information that was taken.He adds, ‘’ “What we don’t know is just how detailed those customer records are. Is it just a name and address and phone number? Or is it a name, address or credit card? Number, credit score?”
Meanwhile, talking to ABC, Courtney Randall,a Latitude customer said that her personal information has been leaked in the breach. She said, ‘’”It’s gotten to the point where the only sensitive piece of information that hasn’t been leaked about me on the internet is my favourite colour.”
97 percent of driver’s licences
She is a Queensland resident and she took a small loan from Latitude Financial to pay off her mobile phone bill.This isn’t for the first time. She is also a customer of Telco Optus and Medibank. Both of these companies have been previously hacked.
Meanwhile the company said, “As of today, Latitude understands that approximately 103,000 identification documents, more than 97 percent of which are copies of driver’s licences, were stolen from the first service provider,”
“Approximately 225,000 customer records were also stolen from the second service provider”, it added, without detailing the extent of information those customer records held.
The company ensures that it’s working with the Australian Cyber Security centre.