Australia's Latitude Group says 7.9 mln driver licence numbers stolen in data theft (updated)

Latitude group

27/03/2023 24:32

(Updates with details from statement, and background)
       March 27 (Reuters) - Australian digital payments and
lending firm Latitude Holdings  LFS.AX  on Monday said it has
determined that 7.9 million Australian and New Zealand driver
licence numbers were stolen in a large-scale information theft
on March 16.
    Apart from the 7.9 million driver licence numbers stolen,
the fintech firm also identified about 53,000 passport numbers
were stolen and less than 100 customers had a monthly financial
statement stolen.    
    Several Australian firms have reported cyberattacks over the
past few months, and experts say this is due to an understaffed
cybersecurity industry in the country. 
    Latitude last week alerted that it had unearthed futher
evidence and it was attempting to identify the number of
customers affected and the type of personal information stolen
by the hacker.
    Customers who choose to replace their stolen ID document
will be reimbursed, the company said in a statement.     

 (Reporting by Navya Mittal in Bengaluru; Editing by Tom Hogue
and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
 ((Navya.Mittal@thomsonreuters.com;))