Adobe hacked, 2.9 million users' data compromised

The season of hacking big companies for data seems to be back. Adobe has revealed that its network had been compromised and details of a staggering 2.9 million customers were affected due to it.

In a blog post making this customer security announcement, Brad Arkin, Chief Security Officer for Adobe wrote, “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’s hack affects millions of user accounts  (Image credit: Reuters)

While the company did not reveal when the breach occurred, Arkin said that Adobe’s investigation revealed that the attackers accessed customer IDs and encrypted passwords from the system. Adobe also believes that information relating to 2.9 million Adobe customers including customer names, encrypted credit or debit card numbers, expiration dates, and other information relating to customer orders may have been compromised, even though the company does not believe that the attackers removed decrypted credit and debit card numbers from its system.

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To deal with the situation, Adobe says that it has reset the hacked customer passwords as a precautionary move. This, it says, will help prevent unauthorised access to Adobe ID accounts. You will receive a mail telling you how to go about changing your password if your account has been one of the affected ones.

As far as customers whose credit and debit card information was accessed, the company has also started notifying them. As part of damage control, Adobe is offering them the option of enrolling in a one-year complimentary credit monitoring membership where available. Adobe has also notified banks processing customer payments for Adobe so that they can work with payment card companies and card-issuing banks to help protect customer accounts. The software company has also contacted federal law enforcement and is assisting them in their investigation.

The company also said that it is investigating the illegal access to source codes of numerous Adobe products but based on its findings, it isn’t aware of any specific increased risk to customers as a result of this incident. Hopefully, the incident will remain a one-off one and even as it is scary, will not go on to affect any customers seriously.