Latitude hit by financial cost of cyber-attack
Jonathan Barrett
Consumer lender Latitude Financial will suffer a fall in full year cash profit of up to 90%, as hefty costs linked to a massive cyber attack weigh on its financials.
In a market update on Friday, Latitude disclosed that it would recognise remediation costs of around $50m after suffering what is the largest-known data breach of an Australian financial institution.
The money would be used by customers to replace stolen documents and identification, such as a passport or driver’s licence.
The company said:
This provision is made up largely of remediation costs but does not include the potential for regulatory fines, class actions, future system enhancements or an assumption of insurance proceeds.
The personal information of 7.9m customers was stolen in the March attack, Latitude said. This included driver licence numbers and personal details such as phone numbers, addresses and income and expense information used to assess loan applications.
A further 6.1m customers had partial records compromised.
The remediation costs, along with disruptions to the business and worsening financial conditions, have combined to severely dent the lender’s profitability. The company said:
While Latitude was able to continue processing transactions as it responded to the March cyber-attack, new account originations and collections were closed or severely restricted for a period of approximately five weeks.
Shares in Latitude, which offers personal loans and credit to customers at stores including JB Hi-Fi, The Good Guys and Harvey Norman, plunged on Friday after the update, falling more than 5%.
The consumer lender now expects to post a full year cash profit in 2023 of between $15m to $25m, compared to $153.5m in 2022.
Key events
Natasha May
Thanks for following along the news blog this Friday. You’ll be in the excellent hands of Royce Kurmelovs for the rest of the afternoon. Have a lovely weekend!
Latitude hit by financial cost of cyber-attack
Jonathan Barrett
Consumer lender Latitude Financial will suffer a fall in full year cash profit of up to 90%, as hefty costs linked to a massive cyber attack weigh on its financials.
In a market update on Friday, Latitude disclosed that it would recognise remediation costs of around $50m after suffering what is the largest-known data breach of an Australian financial institution.
The money would be used by customers to replace stolen documents and identification, such as a passport or driver’s licence.
The company said:
This provision is made up largely of remediation costs but does not include the potential for regulatory fines, class actions, future system enhancements or an assumption of insurance proceeds.
The personal information of 7.9m customers was stolen in the March attack, Latitude said. This included driver licence numbers and personal details such as phone numbers, addresses and income and expense information used to assess loan applications.
A further 6.1m customers had partial records compromised.
The remediation costs, along with disruptions to the business and worsening financial conditions, have combined to severely dent the lender’s profitability. The company said:
While Latitude was able to continue processing transactions as it responded to the March cyber-attack, new account originations and collections were closed or severely restricted for a period of approximately five weeks.
Shares in Latitude, which offers personal loans and credit to customers at stores including JB Hi-Fi, The Good Guys and Harvey Norman, plunged on Friday after the update, falling more than 5%.
The consumer lender now expects to post a full year cash profit in 2023 of between $15m to $25m, compared to $153.5m in 2022.
Josh Taylor
Sewer rats and data security?
We’ve been running through the Senate estimates transcripts as they have been going up and we’ve found this interesting exchange between the Greens senator David Shoebridge and the secretary of the home affairs department, Mike Pezzullo.
Shoebridge:
Sewer rats don’t normally have good data security though, do they?
Pezzullo:
Well, they might well have very good data security, depending on what they do with the cheese that they’ve taken through the pipes, I suppose!
The context for this is last week, the eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant told Guardian Australia that since Elon Musk had taken over Twitter, the platform had become toxic, with the “sewer rats” let back on the site.
Shoebridge had been questioning Pezzullo about whether he had similar concerns about Twitter as the department has had for TikTok. Pezzullo said that Twitter’s moderation policies are more eSafety’s area rather than Home Affairs – which is more concerned with where a site’s data is hosted, and who might have access to it.
Pezzullo did say he saw Inman Grant’s comments, saying he suspected “you [Shoebridge] and I read it in the same place.”
Nice to see you’re an avid Guardian reader, secretary.
Consumers warned high price of fresh food here to stay
The high price of fresh fruit and vegetables won’t come down anytime soon according to fresh food suppliers, AAP reports.
Speaking at a food security inquiry, Claire McClelland from the Australian Fresh Produce Alliance said continuing high inputs for producers was keeping prices high:
Once a price is up it very rarely goes back down … once the price of fuel, or packaging or energy is up we very rarely can reduce that cost.
Ongoing labour shortages and supply chain challenges were also keeping the price of produce high.
Buttrose unaware of Stan Grant abuse until ‘fairly late in the piece’
Asked about the change that needs to come from within the ABC, Buttrose says:
There is an inquiry going on. Our audience research shows us that 75% of people think that our content reflects the diversity of Australia. But I think what management needs to do is make sure that we support the people who make that content when they are subject to racist behaviour.
It’s unacceptable. It’s unacceptable. And I’m appalled at what Stan went through. And if I’d known earlier, I would have spoken to see him about it. But I didn’t know and I don’t think many of us knew until fairly late in the piece.
So I think it’s very important that we that we provide that support to Stan that I said and that everybody reflects about social media. Is this the sort of world we want to live in? It’s unacceptable.
‘We hope he will return’
Buttrose says she hopes Grant will return to ABC programs:
We are providing Stan with as much support as we possibly can – and … to his family – and we hope that he will return to our programs as soon as he feels ready to return. It’s up to Stan. I think he has taken six to eight weeks off, and I understand that but I hold Stan in high regard like so many of our listeners do.
‘Abusive and toxic culture’: Ita Buttrose addresses Stan Grant episode
Buttrose says there is “a lesson for the entire community by Stan Grant stepping back”, calling for a return to civility in public life.
I think the strong public reaction has led to what I would call one of the most widespread outpouring of public commentary on public life that we’ve seen for a long time.
I think it’s telling me that people are sick of the abusive and toxic culture that pervades our public discourse, whether it’s sport, social issues, politics. We are sadly living in a time actually when people think it’s okay to abuse others with whom they disagree.
We can’t have a proper discussion in Australia anymore. And I think Australians want to return to civility in public life. And I think … we need to reflect on this, on the abhorrent and unacceptable behaviour that crops up on social media and lead the way to return to civility in public debate.
You can disagree with someone without having to abuse them. And that’s the important lesson from Stan and I know from the many emails I’ve received that Stan is held in very high regard by so many people.
ABC’s Ita Buttrose to speak on Stan Grant issue
Ita Buttrose, the chair of the ABC, is speaking with ABC Radio Melbourne ahead of an exhibition opening tomorrow celebrating 90 years of the Australian Women’s Weekly. Buttrose started out her career as a copygirl at the Weekly before becoming at age 33 the youngest person to be named editor of the publication.
She’s being asked now about her current role and what she’s learned from Stan Grant standing down.
At the beginning of the week, ABC news chief Justin Stevens says he regrets not defending Stan Grant earlier as the Q+A host faced racist attacks on social media fuelled by what he described as a “relentless campaign” against the ABC’s coronation broadcast from News Corp.
NSW central coast lashed by wild weather
There have been incredible hail storms on New South Wales’ central and Hunter coast within the last hour.
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Senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology Angus Hines says the hail has been generated by thunderstorms along the Hunter Coast north of Sydney:
We’ve got a front moving northwards through that area and along that front, we’ve seen some pretty big thunderstorms develop in these thunderstorms generating some large hail for those coastal areas.
Public has a $13bn right to know details of Murray Darling Basin plan
Tony Grant also took issue with the lack of transparency around how the $13bn Murray-Darling Basin plan is being managed:
He said he had conducted a transparency review to determine if an Australian taxpayer would be able to work out – from publicly available information – how much of the money had been spent or committed, and how much was left.
The key observation arising from my review was that there is no simple, definitive, public source of information that clearly shows the breakdown of the $13bn figure.
He said transparency was vital if taxpayers were to have confidence in the plan:
Quite often, with programs of this size and complexity, funding is reprofiled and moved into and out of various program areas, various departments and agencies.
Varying amounts – $10bn to $13bn to $15bn – have been quoted as expenditure on Basin reform with no clarity on what elements of the reform package this money has been allocated to.
And I can understand why the community and senators must be confused at times, and therefore seek answers to many legitimate questions.
The Australian public, in my view, has a $13bn right to know.
– AAP
