Hundreds of thousands of Australians could have had highly personal information released by a hacker after Sydney-based financial technology company YouX suffered a massive 141 gigabyte data breach.
The fintech YouX first became aware of a potential cyber incident last week.
The hacker claimed to have stolen data on 629,597 loan applications as well as 607,822 residential addresses and 444,538 personal details such as names and phone numbers and 229,236 driver's licences.
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YouX provides a platform for finance brokers and lenders to fill out loan applications.
In an update yesterday, YouX released a statement saying it has "identified unauthorised access to its systems, by a third party" as part of its investigations into the hack.
"We are now aware that a threat actor has released data that it claims to have obtained as part of its unauthorised access," the company said in the update.
"As a result, we have identified that personal information may have been compromised.
"In accordance with our legal obligations, we have kept the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner informed throughout this matter.
"Now that the incident has evolved, we will continue lodging the appropriate regulatory notification. We will also be commencing the appropriate regulatory notifications to affected individuals whose information may have been compromised."
YouX has implemented additional security and monitoring across its systems and is working to better its response measures.
"We regret that this incident has occurred and recognise the importance of transparency," the company said.
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The hacker also claimed to have taken data belonging to 797 broker organisations and 90 downstream leaders, including some of the major banks.
The scope of the breach is unclear at this stage. 9news.com.au has approached YouX for further comment.
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