It's Official: Adobe Hackers DID Decrypt Credit Card Numbers

A letter in postal mail yesterday from Adobe (which I'm sure MANY received) does confirm that the hackers that reached the databases at Adobe did in fact access and decrypt credit numbers using Adobe's systems to do so (nervy!). In case there are some not familiar with the term "decrypt", it means the hackers got to the credit card numbers which are stored in scrambled fashion in the database, and were successful in unscrambling them into clear text. I was afraid of that, which is why I changed my card that night.

The thing that Adobe also wrote, to me, is risky and shouldn't have been said: They said they didn't have evidence "that any dectrypted card numbers were removed as a result of this access to our systems" (emphasis mine). REALLY ADOBE? They get into the database, find the credit card numbers, unencrypt them on your system but didn't copy any nor write them down nor take screen shots nor export a CSV file, at all. Makes perfect sense. Personally I think that's dangerous making folks think that maybe "it's all OK" when clearly it's not.

Anyway, Adobe is offering a one-year subscription to Experian's ProtectMyID if any of the recipients of the letter want that.

Always frustrating when these things happen...

The hackers can have my CC number from Adobe. That account has been closed for years. Go ahead, try to use it, I dare ya.

Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to OnOne Suite 8. They were calling it a replacement for Photoshop. We shall see.

I have been very uncomfortable with the "Cloud" thing Adobe is offering and won't sign up. This just gives me one more reason to think I was probably right to avoid it.


Kent in SD

UGH.... My card number was recently used to try to purchase a car in another state. Had to cancel it of course...but it begs the question about the timing. Just another "stolen number" or was this a result of Adobe's insufficient security? Ridiculous. Can I just go back to cash and fall off the radar?? Unfortunately in this day...No!

I have been very uncomfortable with the "Cloud" thing Adobe is offering and won't sign up. This just gives me one more reason to think I was probably right to avoid it.

This has nothing to do with the cloud. I can't figure out why people keep pointing to that as the culprit. The fact is, if you've ever used your credit card with an online merchant you are vulnerable. The fact that Adobe was hacked is one of the reasons Cyber Security is such a huge topic for everyone (including Adobe). The problem is not Adobe, the problem is the d#!$%m hackers who commit these crimes.

Keith's right, it really doesn't, the Adobe Creative Cloud model is in an environment that, like Keith said, is "ripe for the harvest" for evil people to try and hack into. However, I'm partially holding Adobe's feet to the fire for one thing: they did choose to go full force with a sunscription model, and they clearly underestimated threat potential. Getting hacked isn't the issue, websites have to let the public in so there's always an easy hurdle to reach the web server. Where they dropped the ball is protecting the data tier, the creeps got a little too far into the "systems" (such an ambiguous term, lol) which is evidence that a few checkpoints were pencil-whipped when security was considered.

I tell you this: right now is the SAFEST time to pop your credit card into Adobe and keep your subscription going, believe me, they are now on guard like Fort Knox. In a weird way, this was a good thing to happen, it woke them up to the degree of onslaught they should expect to encounter. You can't stop everything that attacks, and one day your credit card will be stolen from JC Penney and LL Bean and Overstock and even B&H and Adorama. It'll happen eventually, the world is now hardwired for commerce.

I remember as a kid, the worst thing I had to deal with was that I ran out of tape for my hockey stick.