Adobe hit by 'sophisticated' mega hack ransack

Adobe's systems have been hit by numerous "sophisticated attacks" that have compromised the information of 2.9 million customers, and accessed the source code of Adobe products.

The company said on Thursday that it has been the victim of a major cyberattack and said hackers had accessed those millions of customer IDs and encrypted passwords.

"We also believe the attackers removed from our systems certain 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," the company said.

It does not believe decrypted credit or debit card numbers were accessed.

"As a precaution, we are resetting relevant customer passwords to help prevent unauthorized access to Adobe ID accounts. If your user ID and password were involved, you will receive an email notification from us with information on how to change your password," the company wrote.

The company says people should change their passwords on any other website where they have used the same user ID and password. But you'd do that anyway, wouldn't you?

It is "in the process" of notifying customers whose credit or debit data may have been stolen, and is offering them condolence in the form of a "one-year complimentary credit monitoring membership where available."

Where we come from, that's called offering free stable doors after the horses have bolted.

The company has also contacted federal law enforcement officials and notified banks that process customer payments for Adobe.

Hackers have also accessed the source code for the company's Adobe Acrobat, ColdFusion, ColdFusion Builder, and other unnamed products, the company said in a separate blog post.

Security firm Hold Security claims to have found 40 gigabytes in encrypted archives on a hacker's server, apparently containing source code on some of Adobe's biggest products.

"This breach poses a serious concern to countless businesses and individuals," Hold Security wrote. "Effectively, this breach may have opened a gateway for new generation of viruses, malware, and exploits."

Adobe is seeking to reassure users. "We are not aware of any zero-day exploits targeting any Adobe products. However, as always, we recommend customers run only supported versions of the software, apply all available security updates, and follow the advice in the Acrobat Enterprise Toolkit and the ColdFusion Lockdown Guide," it wrote. ®