US insurance giant Farmers Insurance says more than a million customers had personal data nicked after a third-party vendor was compromised.

The insurer, which sells car, home, life, and business cover to more than 10 million Americans, briefly published an advisory on its website confirming the breach before quietly pulling it offline [PDF]. Farmers isn't saying why, but companies sometimes retract notices to tweak wording or to coordinate with regulators. In practice, such moves often fuel speculation that the incident may be bigger, or messier, than the carefully worded filings suggest.

While Farmers' advisory has mysteriously vanished, notifications filed with Maine's attorney general confirm the incident affected just over 1.1 million people, with exposed data ranging from names and

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