Aussie financial services provider reports over 300,000 customer documents stolen

SYDNEY, March 16 : (Xinhua) — Australian financial services provider Latitude said on Thursday that the company has been hit by a cyber-attack, which resulted in a theft of over 300,000 customer documents. “As of today, Latitude understands that approximately 103,000 identification documents, more than 97 percent of which are copies of drivers’ licenses, were stolen from the first service provider. Approximately 225,000 customer records were also stolen from the second service provider,” Latitude noted in a statement.

According to the statement, the company has detected unusual activity on its systems over the last few days, which appeared to be a sophisticated and malicious cyber-attack. The attacker was believed to have used the employee login credentials to steal personal information which was held by two other service providers. Latitude apologized to the impacted customers and said it has alerted the relevant authorities and engaged cyber security specialists. “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,” the company added.

Australia’s Home Affairs and Cyber Security Minister Clare O’Neil confirmed on her social media that the Australian Cyber Security Center is working with Latitude and relevant law enforcement agencies to respond to this cyber security incident. “This incident is another reminder for everyone in the community to be vigilant about their personal cyber security,” said the minister. Latitude provides services to more than 2.8 million customers across Australia and New Zealand. Its partner network of more than 5,500 retailers includes Harvey Norman, JB HiFi, The Good Guys, Samsung and Apple.