Hacked: Latitude confirms details of 14 million consumers stolen

Consumer finance provider Latitude Financial has confirmed that details of 14 million consumers were stolen from its computer systems in a cyberattack this month, including the driver’s licence numbers of 7.9 million Australian and New Zealand customers.

Latitude provides consumer finance services to Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi, The Good Guys, Apple and recently signed up David Jones.

The victims include current and former Latitude customers stretching back more than 10 years, as well as applicants for its consumer credit services that include Harvey Norman’s interest-free loans.

“It is hugely disappointing that such a significant number of additional customers and applicants have been affected by this incident. We apologise unreservedly,” Latitude chief executive Ahmed Fahour said in a release to the ASX.

“We are committed to working closely with impacted customers and applicants to minimise the risk and disruption to them, including reimbursing the cost if they choose to replace their ID document. We are also committed to a full review of what has occurred,” said Fahour who retires from his position on Friday.

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The company said it has not detected any hacker activity on its systems since March 16. Latitude is working with the Australian Cyber Security Centre and the incident is being investigated by the Australian Federal Police.

Latitude urged customers to be vigilant and on the look-out for suspicious behaviour relating to their accounts while it restores platforms that have been unavailable during the hack and unable to sign up new customers.

The company said about 53,000 passport numbers were also stolen in the attack. About 3.2 million of the driver’s licence numbers that were stolen were provided over the past 10 years.