Latitude Financial has confirmed it has notified ASX that it has received a ransom demand from the criminals behind the cyber-attack on the company.
Latitude confirmed it will not pay a ransom.
In the statement, the company said, “In line with advice from cybercrime experts, Latitude strongly believes that paying a ransom will be detrimental to our customers and cause harm to the broader community by encouraging further criminal attacks.
The stolen data the attackers have detailed as part of their ransom threat is consistent with the number of affected customers disclosed by Latitude in our announcement dated 27 March 2023.”
This matter is under investigation by the Australian Federal Police and the company remains in the process of contacting all customers, past customers and applicants whose information was compromised, outlining details of the information stolen.
Regular business operations are being restored, with Latitude’s primary Customer Contact Centre back online and operating at full capacity.
Latitude Financial CEO Bob Belan said, “Latitude will not pay a ransom to criminals. Based on the evidence and advice, there is simply no guarantee that doing so would result in any customer data being destroyed and it would only encourage further extortion attempts on Australian and New Zealand businesses in the future. Our priority remains on contacting every customer whose personal information was compromised and to support them through this process. In parallel, our teams have been focused on safely restoring our IT systems, bringing staffing levels back to full capacity, enhancing security protections and returning to normal operations. I apologise personally and sincerely for the distress that this cyber-attack has caused and I hope that in time we are able to earn back the confidence of our customers.”
