Advance Auto Parts advanceautoparts.com Advance Auto Parts data breach: what happened and what to do
In June 2024, Advance Auto Parts confirmed a breach tied to its Snowflake cloud account. Have I Been Pwned lists 79,243,727 accounts with email addresses, names, phone numbers and addresses. The company separately notified 2.3 million employees and job applicants.
View all 13,115 breaches- Breach date
- 5 Jun 2024
- Affected
- 79,243,727
- Data exposed
- Email addresses, Names, Phone numbers, Physical addresses
- Verified
- Yes
- Last updated
Source: Have I Been Pwned (CC BY 4.0)
What happened
Advance Auto Parts is a U.S. auto parts retailer. In June 2024 a hacker offered its data for sale on a hacking forum, and the company confirmed a breach linked to unauthorized access to its Snowflake cloud services. Have I Been Pwned (HIBP) dates the breach to June 5, 2024, added it on June 24, 2024, and counts 79,243,727 accounts, or about 79 million unique email addresses.
That count covers records related to customers and employees. The company's own notification is narrower. According to BleepingComputer, Advance Auto Parts notified 2,316,591 people, mostly current and former employees and job applicants, after finding that data was accessed or copied between April 14 and May 24, 2024. It filed an SEC Form 8-K about the incident. The two numbers describe different things: HIBP counts the email addresses in the leaked data, while the company counts the people it contacted.
What was exposed
HIBP lists email addresses, names, phone numbers and physical addresses. For the employee and applicant group, the company's notice says the stolen data included full names, Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers and other government ID numbers.
If you only shopped at Advance Auto Parts, the exposure is contact details, which feed phishing and scam texts. If you applied or worked there, the Social Security number is the serious part, since it can be used to open credit.
The company's response
Advance Auto Parts offered 12 months of identity protection services to the people it notified. Check your mail for a letter and use the enrollment code if you got one.
What to do if you were in it
- 1
Check whether you are in this breach
Search your email address on Have I Been Pwned.
- 2
Freeze your credit if you worked or applied there
If you got a notice letter as an employee or applicant, freeze your credit at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. The FTC explains how. Use the free identity protection the company offered.
- 3
Expect phishing and scam texts
A leaked name, phone number and address lets scammers sound legitimate. Don't click links in messages that mention an order or this breach.
- 4
Check whether your email or phone is in this and other breaches
Serus monitors breach databases and the dark web and alerts you when your email, passwords or other personal data appear, and tells you what to do next. It can't remove data that has already leaked, so the alert is the point: it tells you which passwords to change. You can run a free scan.
Frequently asked
Was I affected by the Advance Auto Parts breach?
Search your email on Have I Been Pwned. Employees and applicants also received a letter from the company, which counted 2,316,591 people.
What was exposed?
HIBP lists email addresses, names, phone numbers and physical addresses. The company's notice for employees and applicants adds Social Security numbers and driver's license numbers.
Why are there two different numbers?
HIBP counts 79,243,727 accounts in the leaked data. The company's notification covered 2,316,591 people, mainly employees and applicants.
Sources
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