Australian company Latitude Financial said on Tuesday it refused to pay the ransom demanded by hackers who stole the personal data of millions of customers.
The credit finance company reported in March that “hackers” had stolen the personal information of about 14 million of its Australian and New Zealand customers.
Latitude Financial said it had recently received a ransom note from the group and ignored it, in line with government advice.
“We will not reward criminal behavior and we do not believe that paying a ransom will result in the return or destruction of stolen information”he said in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange.
According to the company, 7.9 million Australian and New Zealand driver’s licenses were stolen, as well as data from 53,000 passports.
More than six million records dating back to at least 2005 and containing information such as names, addresses, phone numbers and dates of birth were also stolen.
Australian Home Secretary Clare O’Neil said giving in to hackers “only fuels the company’s bailout model”.
“They promise to take action in exchange for payment, but often go after companies and individuals again”he added.
In recent months, hackers have targeted some of Australia’s largest companies in a series of separate attacks that have put authorities on high alert.
Russian hackers were accused of accessing thousands of medical records from Australian insurance giant Medibank in a failed rescue attempt in late 2022.
Telecom company Optus also had to deal with a huge data breach in September 2022. The ‘hackers’ then gained access to the data of about 9.8 million people.
Source: DN
