California drivers who recently avoided a trip to the DMV — and instead opted to renew licenses and ID cards online — might be in store for a bigger headache than they would have gotten from the long lines they tried to dodge.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles is looking into a potential credit-card data breach related to the online transactions made on its website between August 2013 and January 2014. The DMV, which was notified of the possible security breach by law officials, said in a statement that there is no clear evidence of a hack in its systems.

“There is no evidence at this time of a direct breach of the DMV’s computer system," the DMV told security site Krebs on Security. "However, out of an abundance of caution and in the interest of protecting the sensitive information of California drivers, the DMV has opened an investigation into any potential security breach in conjunction with state and federal law enforcement.”

The department is "performing a forensic review of its systems and seeking information regarding any potential breach from both the external vendor that processes the DMV’s credit-card transactions and the credit-card companies themselves,” the statement said.

Credit cards used on the California DMV's website between Aug. 2, 2013 and Jan. 31, 2014 are at a security risk, according to Krebs on Security, which confirmed that several banks and financial institutions, including MasterCard, received an alert from the DMV about the breach. Possible stolen data includes the card number, expiration date and the security code on the back of the card. The issue is reportedly a "card-not-present" breach, which typically refers to online transactions.

Currently, it's unclear how many people could be affected if a breach occurred, but the Krebs report said 11.9 million transactions were conducted on the DMV's website in 2012. The site can be used to renew driver's licenses and ID cards, as well as provide other services.

The California DMV did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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