Advance Auto Parts Confirms Data Breach in SEC Filing; Reports Losses Around $300,000

Advance Auto Parts, Inc., one of the big suppliers of automobile aftermarket components in America, has reported a data breach to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).  Advance Auto Parts data breach was first reported by The Cyber Express on June 6, 2024.

In its report to the SEC, the company said that a data breach from its third-party cloud storage had resulted in unauthorized access to consumer and policyholder information.

In a June 14 filing to the SEC, the company said, “On May 23, 2024, Advance Auto Parts, Inc. identified unauthorized activity within a third-party cloud database environment containing Company data and launched an investigation with industry-leading experts. On June 4, 2024, a criminal threat actor offered what it alleged to be Company data for sale. The Company has notified law enforcement.”

A threat actor going by the handle “Sp1d3r” had claimed to have stolen three terabytes of data from the company’s Snowflake cloud storage. The stolen information was allegedly being sold for US$1.5 million on dark web.

(Source: X)

According to the threat actor, the stolen data included 380 million customer profiles, containing names, emails, mobile numbers, phone numbers, addresses; information on 358,000 employees, 44 million Loyalty/Gas card numbers, the company’s sales history, among other details.

Details of Advance Auto Parts SEC Filing

In its declaration to the SEC, auto parts seller said that “There has been no material interruption to the Company’s business operations due to the incident.

“Based on the review of files determined to have been impacted, the Company believes that some files contain personal information, including but not limited to social security numbers or other government identification numbers of current and former job applicants and employees of the Company,” the filing said.

Advance Auto Parts said that the company would share information about the data breach and would offer free credit monitoring and identity restoration services to the impact parties.

The company noted that though it was covered by insurance, the cyberattack could cost damages up to $3 million.

“The Company has insurance for cyber incidents and currently expects its costs related to response and remediation to be generally limited to its retention under such policy. The Company currently plans to record an expense of approximately $3 million for the quarter ending July 13, 2024, for such costs,” it said to the SEC.

Advance Auto Parts currently operates 4,777 stores and 320 Worldpac branches primarily within the United States, with added locations in Canada, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The Advance Auto Parts data breach is part of a recent series of attacks targeting customers of the cloud storage company Snowflake. These attacks have been taking place since at least mid-April 2024. Snowflake acknowledged the issue in a statement, informing a limited number of customers who they believe may have been impacted by the attacks.

Snowflake is a prominent U.S.-based cloud data storage and analytics company, with over 9,800 global customers.  Many of Snowlflakes’ clients had reportedly taken down their databases after the series of cyberattacks. Infact, a comprehensive report revealed that 165 customers were impacted by the Snowflake data breach.

It was on July 26, 2023 that the US Securities and Exchange Commission directed companies to mandatorily declare material cybersecurity incidents they experience and to disclose on an annual basis material information regarding their cybersecurity risk management, strategy, and governance.

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