Australia’s Latitude says 7.9 million driver license numbers stolen in data theft

Digital payments and lending firm Latitude Holdings said on Monday it has determined that 7.9 million Australian and New Zealand driver license numbers were stolen in a large-scale information theft on March 16.

Apart from the 7.9 million driver license numbers stolen, the Australian fintech firm said about 53,000 passport numbers were also stolen and less than 100 customers had a monthly financial statement stolen.

A further 6.1 million records dating back to at least 2005 were also stolen.

“We are rectifying platforms impacted in the attack and have implemented additional security monitoring as we return to operations in the coming days,” chief executive officer Ahmed Fahour said in a statement.

Latitude shares fell 1.7 percent to A$1.19 in early trade.

The firm, which provides consumer finance services to major Australian retailers Harvey Norman and JB Hi-Fi, alerted last week that it had unearthed further evidence of information theft.

Earlier this month, the Melbourne-based company took its platform offline and said the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Cyber Security Centre were looking into the attack.

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.

Last year, some of Australia’s largest companies reported data breaches, prompting authorities to step up efforts to bolster cybersecurity and implement stricter data-sharing rules to prevent breaches in the future.

Customers who choose to replace their stolen ID document will be reimbursed, the company said in a statement.

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