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Executives at property valuer Landmark White (ASX: LMW) can breathe a sigh of relief after a data breach risk assessment revealed most people affected were at "very low risk of harm".
Revelations of the hacking incident led to a voluntary suspension of LMW shares on 19 February that remains in place, while a "significant number" of clients suspended their contracts with the Sydney-based company as well.
However, after today's announcement Commonwealth Bank (ASX: CBA) has reinstated LMW on its residential valuation panel and it is anticipated other lenders will follow suit.
The company has confirmed the vulnerability in question was closed prior to awareness of the data disclosure, and it has been determined as low risk for everyone impacted with the exception of 25 individuals.
"These 25 people have been provided with additional personal assistance to ensure they are supported and protected," LMW said.
"LMW has engaged leading external cyber security and privacy experts to help it understand the impact of this incident and has obtained an independent risk assessment in respect of its own customers directly impacted by this incident.
"The independent risk assessment further indicated that the persons at most risk from the Incident were the employees of LMW due to the impact the ongoing bank suspensions is having on the cashflows of LMW."
The company asserts it has cooperated with the major banks and clients to provide them with all information requested so they can respond appropriately.
"LMW has made significant enhancements to its IT security procedures including anonymisation of private details on completed valuations. LMW will continue to enhance its IT security in line with best practice industry standards," the company said.
"Whilst reinstatement onto valuation panels will allow LMW to revert to normal business in due course, there is likely to be a "ramp up" period of several weeks over which revenues will increase to pre-incident levels.
"Until this has occurred, LMW is not in a position to finalise its assessment of the financial impact of the Incident and accordingly anticipates that the suspension of trading in its securities will remain in place for a further period of two to four weeks.
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