• Hackers obtained the personal information of around 14 million users.
• Forensic review revealed a much higher number of persons.
• The combined population of Australia and New Zealand is 31 million.
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Hackers obtained the personal information of around 14 million Latitude Financial clients in Australia and New Zealand, the business announced on Monday.

Despite the fact that the attack was just recently made public, a “forensic review” revealed a much higher number of persons had been impacted than initially thought—the equivalent of nearly half the populations of the two countries put together.

The company said, “We recognize that today’s announcement will be a distressing development for many of our customers and we apologies unreservedly.”

It was discovered that 53,000 passport numbers and 7.9 million driver’s licence details from Australia and New Zealand had been taken.

Additionally, 6.1 million records with personal data such names, addresses, phone numbers, and dates of birth that go back at least to 2005 were breached.

The combined population of Australia and New Zealand is 31 million.

Latitude initially thought that only 330,000 consumers’ personal information had been compromised.

“It is quite sad that this issue has had such a substantial impact on so many additional consumers and applications. Ahmed Fahour, CEO of Latitude Financial, said, “We sincerely apologies.

“We keep working nonstop to securely resume our operations. In preparation for our operational resumption in the upcoming days, we are repairing the platforms that were damaged by the attack and have added more security monitoring.

Latitude Financial stated that the Australian federal police were conducting an investigation and that it was collaborating with both its own advisors and government-affiliated cyber-security specialists.

The business promised to pay clients who choose to have their documents replaced. It claimed that since March 16 no suspicious activity has been found on its systems.