Australian Lender Latitude’s Shares Slump After Hack Details Emerge
Latitude Group Holdings Ltd. shares slumped as trading resumed for the Australian personal lender that disclosed details of a hack almost a week ago.
The stock lost 16% as of 11:40 a.m. in Sydney trading. Hackers stole more than 103,000 identification documents from a service provider working for the Melbourne-based firm, the company said last week. A review of the cyber attack on its systems uncovered further evidence of “large-scale information theft” affecting customers across Australia and New Zealand, according to a statement Wednesday.
The cyber attack at Latitude, which provides consumer finance services to retailers Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd. and JB Hi-Fi Ltd., adds to concern after a slew of high profile recent breaches. Australia was hit by a cyber-crime wave that shook the business community last year when Singapore Telecommunications Ltd.’s local unit phone provider Optus disclosed a leak that impacted millions of past and present customer details, and health insurer Medibank Private Ltd. lost details on 4 million customers.
“Latitude is committed to keeping our customers, partners, employees and the broader community as up to date as possible as we respond to this attack,” the statement said. “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.”
Photograph: Computer code displayed on screens arranged in Danbury, U.K., on Monday, Jan. 4, 2021. Photo credit: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
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