Australia's Latitude Group opposed to paying ransom to cyber attack criminals (updated)

Latitude group

11/04/2023 01:01

(Adds background, details)
       April 11 (Reuters) - Australian consumer finance firm
Latitude Group Holdings Ltd  LFS.AX  will not pay a ransom to
those behind a cyber attack last month, saying it will be
detrimental to customers and cause harm to the broader community
by encouraging further attacks.
    "We will not reward criminal behaviour, nor do we believe
that paying a ransom will result in the return or destruction of
the information that was stolen," Latitude said in a statement
on Tuesday.
    Last month, the company said hackers stole nearly 8 million
Australian and New Zealand drivers licence numbers in one of the
country's biggest confirmed data breaches.
    Latitude, which provides consumer finance services to
retailers Harvey Norman  HVN.AX  and JB Hi-Fi  JBH.AX , had also
taken its platforms offline.
    "Regular business operations are being restored, with
Latitude's primary Customer Contact Centre back online and
operating at full capacity," said the company.
    Several Australian firms have reported cyber attacks over
the past few months, which experts attribute to an understaffed
cyber security industry.

 (Reporting by Jaskiran Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil
D'Silva and Subhranshu Sahu)
 ((Jaskiran.Singh@thomsonreuters.com;))