Latitude Financial Services has made a bold move by refusing to pay the ransom demand of the cyber-criminals responsible for the recent attack on its systems.
The decision was taken in the wake of one of Australia's largest confirmed data breaches, affecting nearly 14 million Australian and New Zealand drivers’ licence numbers.
The Australian Government has taken a strong stance against paying ransoms to cyber-criminals and Latitude Financial Services' decision is in line with this policy.
The company believes that paying a ransom would be detrimental to its customers and could encourage further cyber-attacks.
In response to the attack, the Australian Federal Police are investigating the matter and Latitude is working closely with cybersecurity experts to ensure the safety of its customers' data.
Despite the severity of the attack, Latitude is confident that regular business operations will soon be restored.
What’s more, its primary customer contact centre is back online and operating at full capacity, and new customer originations have resumed.
Today, Latitude Financial has announced that it will not pay a ransom to the cyber criminals who accessed the personal information of millions of customers.Latitude’s decision is consistent with Australian government advice.
— Clare O'Neil MP (@ClareONeilMP) April 11, 2023
Restoring IT systems
In a statement to the ASX, Latitude CEO Bob Delan 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.”
War games in play
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said recent attacks on Optus, Medibank and Latitude Financial were just the tip of the iceberg when it came to damaging cyberattacks.
She added that the government was preparing for more profound breaches that could potentially disrupt critical infrastructure assets such as the water supply and electricity grid.
The minister is proposing a series of ‘war-gaming exercises’ to evaluate the cyber readiness of banks and financial institutions.
These exercises will evaluate their ability to respond to attacks that could potentially disrupt the lives of millions of Australians.
Cyber-attacks are not going away, and we need to make sure our essential services are prepared.That’s why we’re bringing together Australia’s most critical services across the whole economy together to conduct exercises to test and better prepare for potential cyber-attacks. pic.twitter.com/gjj6W79OAP
— Clare O'Neil MP (@ClareONeilMP) April 11, 2023