Adobe late Thursday notified customers about a serious security situation involving 2.9 million of the software firm’s customers. Hackers reportedly breached the company’s security and gained access to customer IDs, encrypted passwords, and, for some accounts, encrypted credit card and debit card information. The hackers also reportedly stole the source code to several Adobe products.
Cyber attacks are one of the unfortunate realities of doing business today. Given the profile and widespread use of many of our products, Adobe has attracted increasing attention from cyber attackers. Very recently, Adobe’s security team discovered sophisticated attacks on our network, involving the illegal access of customer information as well as source code for numerous Adobe products. We believe these attacks may be related.
Adobe is still investigating the breach, but at this time does not believe that any sensitive unencrypted data was accessed. Customers with Adobe ID accounts are urged to change their passwords, and Adobe is contacting members whose credit and debit card information was stolen. Even with encryption, it is possible that the hackers will be able to gain access to some members’ financial information. U.S. customers who are affected will be eligible for a free year of credit monitoring protection; Adobe is in the process of informing customers of their options.
The security breach comes at a bad time for the San Jose company. Adobe recently transitioned its professional applications to a subscription-only model, forcing customers who wish to use the latest versions of the software to maintain credit and debit card information on file with the company.