Lowe’s is notifying some current and former vehicle drivers as well as employees who access and administer a driver file system that their personal information was exposed on the Internet for nine months.
In their notification letter dated today, Scott Purvis, Vice President of Human Resources for Lowe’s writes:
Lowe’s contracts with a third-party vendor to provide a computer system (E-DriverFile) that stores compliance documentation and information related to current and former drivers of Lowe’s vehicles as well as information about certain current and former employees who access and administer the system. The personal information in E-DriverFile may include names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, Sales IDs, and other driving record information. We recently learned that the vendor unintentionally backed up this data to an unsecured computer server that was accessible from the Internet.
Investigation determined that the information on the exposed backup server may have been accessed between July 1, 2013 and April 2, 2014.
At this time, the firm says they have no evidence that any of the information has been misused, but those being notified are being offered a year of AllClear ID services.
A copy of Lowe’s notification letter can be found on the website of the California Attorney General’s Office (pdf).
Update: idRADAR.com reports that 35,000 were affected. They also report that the involved vendor was SafetyFirst.
Update of June 17, 2014: Templates of SafetyFirst’s notification to clients and non-residents have been submitted to California’s breach web site.