Hackers steal data from 14 million Australians

Consumer finance company Latitude Financial said Monday that the personal data of about 14 million of its customers in Australia and New Zealand has been stolen by hackers.

The company had already alerted the incident earlier in March, initially citing the theft of 330,000 customer data. But on Monday, the company said that according to an internal study, the breach is much larger — roughly the equivalent of half the state’s two.

“We realize today’s announcement will be a traumatic event for many of our customers and we deeply apologize,” the company said.

According to the company, 7.9 million Australian and New Zealand driver’s licenses have been stolen, along with 53,000 passport numbers.

Also compromised were 6.1 million records dating back to at least 2005 and containing information such as names, addresses, phone numbers and dates of birth.

Hackers took employee login credentials to steal information.

Ahmed Faour, managing director of Latitude Financial, said the company is doing everything it can to improve the platforms affected by the attack and is implementing additional security measures.

Latitude Financial also said it was working with government cyber security experts and its advisors, and that the Australian Federal Police had also opened an investigation.

The company said it would pay customers who decided to replace their documents.