Over 300,000 documents and customer records have been stolen during a “sophisticated and malicious” cyberattack on Latitude Financial Services.
Latitude is a predominantly Australian company that offers consumer finance services. It has previously worked with Harvey Norman and Mastercard.
Latitude announced the incident in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). It said it’s taking “immediate steps” to contact impacted customers.
Cyberattack
Latitude Financial Services said on Thursday that about 103,000 identification documents – 97% of which were believed to be copies of drivers’ licences – were stolen in the cyberattack. About 225,000 customer records were also taken.
It says the cyberattack appeared to have originated from one of its major trading partners. The attacker is believed to have gained access to employee login credentials to steal personal information that was held by two other service providers.
Latitude’s next move
Latitude Financial Services has said it is now working to prevent any further theft of customer data from cyberattacks. It’s restricting access to some internal and customer-facing systems.
It is also working with the Australian Cyber Security Centre, and has alerted cybersecurity specialists and law enforcement agencies of the breach.
Latitude also entered a trading halt on the stock market this morning.