Latitude Financial warns of 'large-scale information theft'

Latitude Financial is now dealing with “large-scale information theft” above and beyond what it has so far disclosed after a cyber attack.

The consumer lender revealed the attack on March 16, and said earlier this week that it had been unable to contain the incident, with additional impact likely.

The quantum of the additional impact is still not clear, but Latitude Financial warned today that it could be sizable.

“While to the best of our knowledge no compromised data has left Latitude’s systems since Thursday March 16, regrettably our [forensic] review has uncovered further evidence of large-scale information theft affecting customers (past and present) and applicants across Australia and New Zealand,” the company said in a financial filing.

“Our people are working urgently to identify the total number of customers and applicants affected and the type of personal information that has been stolen.”

So far, copies of driver’s licences are among the identifying documents to be stolen.

Latitude Financial “unreservedly” apologised for the escalation of the incident.

“We will provide a further update once we have determined the full extent of the theft and we will contact all additional customers and applicants affected as soon as we can,” the company said.

“Our focus remains firmly on containing this attack, progressing our forensic review of the actions taken by the attacker and restoring operational capability gradually over the coming days.”