MisuseRetail & ConsumerRetailData MishandlingEmployee Data InvolvedDelayed DiscoveryIdentity (basic)Government IDMediumContained

LITHIA MOTORS INC

bd_f8e0af360da0e285 · schema v1 · pii pii-v1

Severity

Medium

Discovered

May 2, 2023

Filed

Jul 3, 2023

To disclose

9 weeks

Affected

1state residents only

Confidence

68%

Full breach record for LITHIA MOTORS INC →2 incidents on file

Lithia Motors, Inc. notified one Massachusetts resident that a former IT employee created a backup of their email account (June 2017–June 2018) on a USB thumb drive and failed to return it upon termination in February 2019. The backup contained the resident's name and Social Security number. Lithia learned of the incident on May 2, 2023, conducted an internal investigation, and confirmed no further unauthorized use. The company offered two years of complimentary credit monitoring.

J jump to incidentP pin to compareR raw source

Massachusetts clock⏱ MA AG >30d9 weeks discovery → filing

Incident timeline

undetected · 2150 days

discovery → filing · 9 weeks / 62 days

Jun 12, 2017

Begins

May 2, 2023

Discovered

Jul 3, 2023

Filed

vs. sector median

+1 wks slower

Tracked as a single-filing incident — the only disclosure on record for this event so far.Confirmed1 affectedView incident

Name: LITHIA MOTORS INC
norm: lithia motors

Name: LITHIA MOTORS INC
norm: lithia motors
Industry: Retail & Consumerllm

Discovered: May 2, 2023
Breach occurred: Jun 12, 2017 – Jun 12, 2018
Undetected for: 2,150 daysoccurrence → discovery
Materiality determined: —
Notification sent: Jul 3, 2023
Affected individuals: 1state-resident count only
Data types: Identity (basic)Government ID
Attack vector: Insider
MITRE ATT&CK: T1052 Exfiltration Over Physical Medium
Threat actor: Internal
Initial access: insider_action

During the incident: Promptly began an internal investigation
Liaised with the former employee to confirm that the information contained on the thumb drive was not subject to any further unauthorized use or disclosure
Changes made: Offering a complimentary two-year membership of Equifax Credit Watch Gold
Source: Quoted from the filing itself, not independently verified.

Time to disclose: 9 weeks(62 days from discovery to filing)
Compliance flags: MA AG >30d
Discovery-date grounding: letter-groundedThe discovery date is the detection date narrated in the notification letter — the defensible tier.

Status: No extraction artifact recorded for this disclosure.

Evidence ladder

Leak-site claim

Attacker assertion only. Establishes: claim date, group, alleged victim.

Press / market report

Unlocks: incident narrative, operational impact. Still no compliance clock.

State AG / regulator filingThis record

Unlocks: discovery date, data types, affected count, compliance clock.

SEC 8-K / victim statement

Unlocks: materiality, stated response, full audit trail. Ceiling removed.

Source URL: https://www.mass.gov/doc/assigned-data-breach-number-29915-lithia-motors-inc/download
DisclosureLens links to the originating regulator URL — full filing bodies are not redistributed from public surfaces (§4.5).
Filed at: Jul 3, 2023
Raw hash: ef00c54257cabf445b68bceda07c68763f860230615d818db0c692fee1e569f7

Reporting entityLITHIA MOTORS INC

Victim entityLITHIA MOTORS INC

Incidentdiscovered May 2, 2023

Stated responsePromptly began an internal investigation

ComplianceMA AG >30d

Extraction provenanceno artifact recorded

Source provenancewww.mass.gov