Coles Financial Services has expressed its disappointment after being alerted that historical customer credit card details were stolen in the Latitude data breach.
Coles credit card holders’ personal details are the latest to be identified in around 14 million customer records compromised in the hack.
Latitude Financial Services has informed Coles of the breach and is currently contacting affected customers.
“We are disappointed that this cyber incident has taken place and apologise for the inconvenience and uncertainty created,” a Coles spokeswoman said in a statement.
“As a former service provider, Latitude Financial Services has informed Coles Financial Services that historical Coles credit card holder data has been affected by the recent cyber incident.”
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The hack, which was detected in March, included details for 7.9 million drivers licences and roughly 53,000 passport numbers among the 14 million stolen customer records.
Latitude has not yet advised Coles of the number of impacted customers or specific details of the breach, the spokeswoman said.
GE Australia and its money business – which provided branded credit cards with Coles and Myer from 2005 to 2015 – transitioned into Latitude after being acquired by Värde Partners, KKR and Deutsche Bank in 2015.
“In March 2018, Coles Financial Services moved its credit cards to Citibank,” the Coles spokeswoman said.
“In the event you have any questions about your current Coles Mastercard please visit our Coles Financial Services contact centre page.
On Tuesday, Latitude Financial refused to pay ransom to the cyber criminals for the stolen data, saying it could see no benefit to consumers in rewarding criminal behaviour.
“Latitude will not pay a ransom to criminals,” chief executive Bob Belan said.
“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.”
-AAP
