Latitude Financial hack: Who is impacted and what to do next
Latitude Financial Services has confirmed that up to 14 million Australian and New Zealand customers are impacted by the latest data breach.
The cyberattack on the Aussie credit card, loan and insurance provider is far worse than the company originally reported a few weeks ago, with millions of customers now impacted, dating back as far as 2005.
Here's what we know about the compromised details so far, based on Latitude's announcement to the ASX:
- 7.9 million Australian and New Zealand driver's licences were stolen, of which around 3.2 million were provided in the last decade.
- 6.1 million customer records including some but not all of the customer's names, addresses, phone numbers and dates of birth were also taken in the hack.
- Like the licence numbers, the bulk of these were from before 2013, dating back as far as 2005.
- 53,000 passport numbers have been stolen.
- 100 customers had their financial statements stolen.
The Australian Passport Office says impacted passports are still safe to use for international travel.
"Your passport number cannot be used to obtain a new passport," the government entity says in a statement.
Expert weighs in: How to protect your money and assets from cyber attack
"Robust controls are used to protect passports from identity takeover, including sophisticated facial recognition technology."
This puts the size of the attack in line with Optus and Medibank, which occurred late last year.
Two weeks ago, Latitude came out saying they believed 100,000 copies of customers' IDs plus 225,000 customer records were stolen in the hack.
But it has been proven to be worse than first predicted.
What to do if you're a current or previous Latitude customer?
If you became a customer from 2013 onwards, it's unlikely your data was harvested in this attack.
If you first became a customer between 2005 and 2013, there's a greater risk that your data has been compromised.
Either way, there are a few steps you can take in order to protect yourself.
In a statement, Latitude says it is urging customers to be vigilant with all online communications including suggestions to:
- Stay alert for any phishing scams
- Ensure communication received are legitimate (check for spelling errors, typos and unfamiliar email addresses)
- Not open text messages from unknown or suspicious numbers
- Change passwords regularly with strong passwords
Latitude also says it will not contact customers asking for passwords or sensitive information, so disregard any messages of this nature.
Another way to protect yourself is by checking your credit score. If you notice any changes to your credit score and you have not recently applied fora loan or credit facility (like a mobile phone plan), this can be a sign of suspicious behaviour.
"We urge all our customers to be vigilant and on the look-out for suspicious behaviour relating to their accounts," Latitude CEO Ahmed Fahour says.
"We continue to work around the clock to safely restore our operations. We are rectifying platforms impacted in the attack and have implemented additional security monitoring as we return to operations in the coming days."
Your credit score is a number between 0 and 1,000 that lenders use when deciding whether to give you a loan or credit card. You can check your credit score and as many times as you like to keep an eye on suspicious transactions: download the Finder app to get free monthly updates
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