More than 2.3 million people were identified as potentially affected by an Advance Auto Parts data breach involving information stored in a Snowflake account. The affected population primarily included current and former employees and job applicants—not necessarily retail customers. The incident occurred from April 14 through May 24, 2024, and the related $10 million settlement received final approval in October 2025. Approved payments were issued February 5, 2026, according to the official settlement administrator.
The short answer
Advance Auto Parts said an unauthorized third party accessed and copied information maintained in the company’s Snowflake environment. The breach notice identified an access period from April 14 through May 24, 2024. The company later notified people whose information may have been involved.
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Settlement materials estimated that more than 2.3 million people were impacted. Those people were primarily current employees, former employees and job applicants. Being an Advance Auto retail customer alone does not establish that someone was affected or eligible for the settlement; eligibility was tied to receiving an Advance Auto data-incident notification.
The incident became associated with a wider 2024 campaign targeting Snowflake customer accounts. That does not establish that all of Snowflake was breached. Snowflake said attackers used stolen credentials and pointed to customer-side safeguards such as multifactor authentication and network-access policies. Plaintiffs disputed how responsibility should be divided, and the Advance Auto litigation ended without a trial finding assigning ultimate fault.
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What happened?
Advance Auto used Snowflake, a cloud data platform, to store or process company information. According to the company’s breach notice, an unauthorized party accessed information in the relevant Snowflake account and copied data.
The notice gives April 14 through May 24, 2024, as the period during which the unauthorized access occurred. There is a date discrepancy in the public materials about when Advance Auto learned of the incident: the breach notice says the company learned of unauthorized access on May 23, 2024, while later settlement materials describe Advance Auto as becoming aware of the incident on May 24, 2024. Those dates should not be silently treated as identical.
Advance Auto investigated and subsequently notified individuals whose information was potentially compromised. Potential exposure does not prove that every person’s information was misused, publicly posted or used to open fraudulent accounts.
Who was affected?
This was not established as a breach of all Advance Auto retail customers. The settlement materials identify affected people connected primarily to Advance Auto employment or job applications who received breach notices.
The known groups included:
- Current Advance Auto employees;
- Former employees;
- Job applicants and candidates; and
- Potentially other individuals whose information was stored in the relevant employment-related systems.
The official settlement FAQ ties the settlement class to people who received an Advance Auto data-incident notification. A person who shopped at Advance Auto, created a retail account or purchased parts should not assume they were included unless they received an official notice or can confirm eligibility with the administrator.
What information may have been exposed?
The categories varied by individual. The breach notice identified information that may have included:
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- Name;
- Mailing address;
- Email address;
- Date of birth;
- Driver’s-license information;
- Social Security number;
- Demographic information; and
- Information from employment applications.
That list does not mean every affected person had every category exposed. The original notice sent to each individual may provide more specific information about that person’s records.
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Why is Snowflake involved?
Snowflake provides cloud-based tools for storing, analyzing and managing data. In 2024, threat actors targeted certain Snowflake customer accounts using stolen credentials. Advance Auto’s incident involved access to data in an Advance Auto Snowflake account during that broader campaign.
Snowflake has said the attacks were not caused by a vulnerability or breach of its platform. In a SEC filing, Snowflake described affected customers as having security weaknesses that could include failure to implement multifactor authentication and network-access controls.
Plaintiffs argued that Snowflake and its customers shared responsibility for protecting the information. Materials from the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation describe disputed questions involving Snowflake’s shared-responsibility model and the security practices of individual customers.
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The most accurate description is therefore: attackers accessed Advance Auto Parts data stored in a Snowflake account during a wider campaign targeting Snowflake customers. Calling this simply “a Snowflake breach” is shorthand, not a finding that the entire Snowflake platform was compromised. The later dismissal of Advance Auto plaintiffs’ claims against Snowflake was a procedural resolution, not a merits finding that resolves every factual question about responsibility.
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Timeline
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| April 14, 2024 | Beginning of the unauthorized-access period identified in Advance Auto’s breach notice. |
| May 23, 2024 | Advance Auto says in its notice that it learned an unauthorized third party had accessed information. |
| May 24, 2024 | The access period identified in the notice ended. Later settlement materials describe this as the date Advance Auto became aware of the incident. |
| June 2024 | Public reporting connected Advance Auto to the broader Snowflake customer-account incident. |
| October 4, 2024 | Judicial Panel materials addressed related litigation involving Snowflake and affected customers, including Advance Auto. |
| May 22, 2025 | A federal court preliminarily approved a proposed $10 million settlement. |
| October 23, 2025 | The court granted final approval of the settlement. |
| December 19, 2025 | Advance Auto plaintiffs’ claims against Snowflake were dismissed with prejudice under a court order. |
| February 5, 2026 | The settlement administrator says approved payments were issued. |
| May 6, 2026 | Uncashed settlement checks became void under the administrator’s update. |
Settlement and payment status
The approved settlement created a $10 million non-reversionary fund. The fund amount was not a guaranteed payment for every affected person. Individual recovery depended on the approved claim, documented losses, the settlement terms and deductions for expenses or other approved distributions.
A federal court granted final approval on October 23, 2025. As of August 18, 2026, the official administrator reported that approved payments had been issued on February 5, 2026. The administrator also stated that checks not cashed by May 6, 2026, became void.
Readers should use the official Advance Auto Parts settlement website for claim-status questions, payment questions, replacement-check information, procedures for voided or uncashed checks and administrator contact details. Do not assume that a new claim can still be filed; the published payment timeline indicates that the ordinary claim process has already been completed unless the administrator says otherwise.
What affected people should do now
1. Keep the breach notice
Save the original letter or email. It may identify which categories of information were involved for you and can help if you need to dispute an account or report identity theft.
2. Confirm settlement information through the official site
Do not use a link from an unsolicited text, call or email when checking your claim. Type aapdatasettlement.com into your browser or independently verify the administrator’s contact details.
3. Consider a credit freeze
If your Social Security number or driver’s-license information may have been exposed, a credit freeze is the strongest free step for preventing new-credit applications in your name. Place freezes separately with:
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- Equifax;
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A freeze blocks prospective creditors from accessing your credit file unless you temporarily lift it or remove it. It does not stop takeover of an existing account, tax fraud, employment fraud or misuse of information outside the credit system.
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Obtain reports through AnnualCreditReport.com, the federally authorized source. Look for unfamiliar accounts, hard inquiries, addresses or collection activity. Contact the creditor promptly if you find something you did not authorize.
5. Monitor related accounts
Check tax filings, employment records, bank and credit-card accounts, government-benefit accounts and email accounts for activity you do not recognize. Use unique passwords and multifactor authentication where available.
6. Report suspected identity theft
If fraudulent activity appears, report it at IdentityTheft.gov and notify the relevant financial institution, creditor, tax agency or benefits provider. Keep records of reports, correspondence and expenses.
7. Treat follow-up messages as potential scams
A legitimate settlement administrator should not require you to pay money to unlock a payment. Do not provide your Social Security number, bank password, one-time authentication code or new identity documents to an unsolicited caller. Be especially cautious of messages promising a fixed payout or demanding an upfront fee.
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Credit freeze, fraud alert or monitoring?
These tools serve different purposes:
- Credit freeze: Most restrictive and generally the best free choice when new-account fraud is the main concern. You can temporarily lift it when applying for credit.
- Fraud alert: Asks creditors to take additional steps to verify identity. It is less restrictive than a freeze and may suit someone who wants fewer application hurdles.
- Credit or identity monitoring: Can alert you to some new accounts, inquiries or other signals, but it does not prevent identity theft.
Paid services may add restoration assistance, identity-theft insurance, dark-web monitoring or data-broker removal. They are optional, not required for settlement eligibility, and not substitutes for a credit freeze. Insurance also has exclusions, documentation requirements and coverage limits. For many people, free freezes and regular report reviews address the most important risks.
Quick Recap
What this breach does—and does not—show
- It does show that an unauthorized party accessed and copied information maintained in an Advance Auto Snowflake account during the stated access period.
- It does show that more than 2.3 million people were identified as potentially impacted in settlement materials.
- It does not show that all Advance Auto retail customers were affected.
- It does not show that every affected person’s Social Security number, driver’s-license information or other listed data was exposed.
- It does not show that every exposed record was misused.
- It does not establish through a trial judgment that Snowflake caused the incident or that Snowflake had no responsibility.
- It does not guarantee a particular settlement payment to every notified individual.
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