Newsable: 'Degree of inevitability' around large data hacks, says cybersecurity expert
Wednesday, 29 March 2023
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A cyber-security expert says large-scale data breaches are simply a reality of the modern world, after millions of people had their private information stolen in a cyber-security attack.
The driving licence details of more than one million New Zealanders were compromised in the hack of consumer finance company Latitude, which provides customer finance and runs the Gem Visa service.
Netsafe’s Sean Lyons says Latitude had followed best practice in its response, proactively getting in touch with the customers it knew had been affected.
Such breaches were unfortunate, but understandable given the amount of consumer data stored online.
**READ MORE:
* Kiwibank counting customers whose ID data was stolen in massive Latitude privacy breach
* Latitude confirms details of 14 million consumers stolen
* Mandatory data breach law - what this means for your business
**
“This is a criminal act by someone, to break into the systems of Latitude - and you’d hope there are things that can be done,” he tells Newsable.
“There’ve been bigger breaches. There are data pools out there that are available in the dark net, information about people that have been available for a long time.”
“There is a degree of inevitability about the fact that we are all, from time to time, maybe caught up in these things.”
Lyons said consumers could quiz companies asking for their data about what security measures they had in place to protect it, or try to come to a bespoke arrangement if they didn’t feel comfortable handing over some types of information.
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