Latitude Financial Suffers Cyber Attack; Hackers Exfiltrate the Data of Millions of Customers

Latitude Financial, the company that owns Genoapay, Gem Visa and Go Mastercard, has been hit by a cyber attack that has breached the privacy of more than 8 million of their users across New Zealand and Australia. The company also owns 28° Global and Infinity credit cards, in addition to providing both personal and vehicle loans.

Latitude Financial Services CEO Ahmed Fahour issued a message to customers, stating that it would take some time before their services would be fully operational again. "We cannot restore this capability immediately, however we are working to do so gradually over the coming days, and ask our customers for their continued patience."

It is believed that the vast majority of the information that was stolen pertained to driver licences, though it has been confirmed that the stolen data also included copies of passports along with Medicare information. "As our review deepens to include non-customer originating platforms and historical customer information, we are likely to uncover more stolen information affecting both current and past Latitude customers and applicants. We will provide a further update when we have more information to share."

Four days after the attack began, Latitude Financial purportedly started contacting customers who had been affected, letting them know what personal information of theirs had been breached. The company also stated that it would work with relevant agencies, and bear the full cost of replacing the identification documents where necessary.

However, Genoapay customer Terence Osmena claimed that he had no communication from Latitude Financial, and instead opted to pay $38 out of his own pocket to replace his driver's licence. Osmena stated that he was taking matters into his own hands in order to protect himself, noting that the time taken for Latitude Financial to get in touch with affected customers was far too long. "They could have still told individuals without breaching any legal requirements from Genoapay. This also meant the window of opportunity where a crime could be committed was wider than it should have been."

Fahour stated that Latitude Financial is still assessing the anticipated total cost for the company as a result of the incident, and that the attack itself is being investigated by the Australian Federal Police.