Adobe reveals data breach larger than believed – 38m users affected

30 Oct 2013

Photo by Thomas Hawk/Flickr

A data breach at Adobe earlier this month is more far reaching than the software company initially thought, with more than 38m customers’ data having been compromised.

Earlier this month, Adobe said hackers had broken into its network and accessed not only source code for Adobe products, but data on 2.9m customers. Yesterday, the number of stolen usernames and passwords had increased to more than 38m.

Adobe said the 38m included expired and invalid usernames and encrypted passwords, but did not indicate how many were still active.

Brad Arkin, chief security officer, had written on an Adobe blog that the cyberattacks had been “sophisticated”.

At the time the breach was first revealed, Adobe recommended that customers change their passwords on any website where they may have used the same user ID and password.

Heather Edell, an spokeswoman for Adobe, said all 38m affected users have been notified and passwords have been reset for affected accounts.

Tina Costanza was a journalist and sub-editor at Silicon Republic

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