Lowe's acknowledges data breach

While a far cry from the kind of widespread data breach that struck Target Corp. last year, an employee-related data breach at Lowe's has spurred letters to possible victims who are advised to be aware of the breach.

The breach affected the company's current and former drivers, who may have had their personal information -- including social security numbers -- compromised when data was backed up unintentionally on a computer that was not secure and open to the Internet. 

Lowe's says it has no evidence that the information has been used, but a letter to possible victims by the company’s VP human resources Scott Purvis, said that the information may have been “subject to unauthorized access.”

Lowe’s pointed to an error on behalf of a third-party vendor, E-DriveFile, and said that information may have been compromised between July 2013 and April 2014. 

Various media reports estimate about 35,000 people were notified by Lowe’s regarding the breach. 

In late 2013, Target announced that data from about 40 million consumer credit and debit cards was compromised.