Adobe hackers got to 38 million users, NOT a piddling 2.9 million
A hack attack on Adobe's user base has turned out to be a lot more serious than at first thought, according to the website ZDNet.
Adobe hackers shock
The original estimated figure was around 2.9 million when first admitted on October 3, but has now been confirmed by Adobe to be 38 million.
Brad Arkin, senior director of security for Adobe, explained at the time that the attack concerned both customer information and illegal access to source codes for "numerous Adobe products."
Examples included Adobe Acrobat, ColdFusion, and the ColdFusion Builder.
The culprits were able to obtain access to Adobe customer IDs, names, encrypted passwords, encrypted credit/debit card numbers, expiration dates, and more.
But Arkin said investigators didn't "believe the attackers removed decrypted credit or debit card numbers" from Adobe's systems.
The new figure - almost 13 times greater - was confirmed when ZDNet approached Adobe, citing a Krebs security report. Adobe responded, confirming that the investigation had revealed that the original attackers obtained access to Adobe IDs and then-valid encrypted passwords for approximately 38 million active users.
Adobe spokesperson Heather Edell said that Adobe has notified all these users via email as well as reset passwords for all Adobe IDs with valid, encrypted passwords that were believed to have been affected by the attack -- even if the users weren't actively using Adobe's software and services.
"We currently have no indication that there has been unauthorized activity on any Adobe ID account involved in the incident," Edell said.
The attackers are also believed to have obtained access to many invalid Adobe IDs, inactive Adobe IDs, Adobe IDs with invalid encrypted passwords, and test account data.The investigation as well as notification to users is ongoing.