2.3 Million Users Affected by Advance Auto Parts Breach

Advance Auto Parts has confirmed that a data breach has affected over 2.3 million individuals, exposing sensitive personal information such as names, Social Security numbers, driver's licenses, and government-issued identification numbers. This breach, which occurred between April 14, 2024, and May 24, 2024, was part of a larger cyberattack campaign targeting clients of the data storage company Snowflake.

The attackers, identified as the group “Sp1d3r,” infiltrated Snowflake accounts using stolen credentials, impacting numerous organizations including Pure Storage, Los Angeles Unified School District, Neiman Marcus, Ticketmaster, and Banco Santander. Advance Auto Parts acknowledged its breach in a Form 8-K filing on June 19, 2024, and has since completed its internal investigation.

In filings with regulators in Maine, Advance Auto Parts detailed that 2,316,591 people were affected by this breach. Despite claims by the hacker group that they possessed a database containing 380 million Advance customer records, the company stated that the compromised data pertains only to employees and job applicants.

"Our investigation determined that an unauthorized third party accessed or copied certain information maintained by Advance Auto Parts from April 14, 2024, to May 24, 2024," the company said in its notice.

Impacted individuals are being offered 12 months of complimentary identity theft protection and credit monitoring services through Experian, and are advised to enroll by October 1, 2024. Speaking to The Record, Cisco Talos expert Nick Biasini highlighted the broader implications of this breach, noting that it underscores the growing threat posed by large-scale credential theft operations.

"These actors operate large scale campaigns, gather, vet, and organize the credentials they harvest ready to sell to the highest bidder," Biasini stated. The breach at Advance Auto Parts is part of a worrying trend of cyberattacks targeting major corporations through compromised cloud storage credentials.

Similar breaches, like the massive breach reported earlier this year by Xfinity, continue to affect millions. These recurring incidents provide a window into the vulnerabilities of cloud-based data storage solutions and the critical importance of protective measures to safeguard sensitive information.