Latitude, an Australian financial services provider, announced on Thursday that it had been the victim of a hack that resulted in the theft of over 300,000 customer records.
“As of today, Latitude understands that approximately 103,000 identification documents, more than 97 per cent 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 corporation has identified strange activity on its systems in recent days, which seemed to be a sophisticated and hostile hack, according to Xinhua news agency.
The attacker was suspected of using staff login credentials to collect personal information from two other service providers.
Latitude apologised to affected customers and stated that it has notified the appropriate authorities and hired cyber security experts.
“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.
Clare O’Neil, Minister for Home Affairs and Cyber Security, announced on social media that the Australian Cyber Security Centre is collaborating with Latitude and relevant law enforcement authorities to respond to this cyber security problem.
“This incident is another reminder for everyone in the community to be vigilant about their personal cyber security,” said the Minister.
Latitude serves more than 2.8 million clients in Australia and New Zealand.
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