Adobe revealed Wednesday that the recent hacking of its customers' private credentials was far deeper than previously believed and it affected some 38 million users.
Adobe revised its customer impact figure from a recent hack earlier this month, revealing 38 million users had their private credentials compromised, instead of 3 million as reported. The company, however, took all security measures to limit the damage of the attack by notifying its users to reset their passwords.
"So far, our investigation has confirmed that the attackers obtained access to Adobe IDs and (what were at the time valid), encrypted passwords for approximately 38 million active users," Adobe spokesperson Heather Edell said in a statement.
Following the attack, earlier in October, Adobe addressed the matter publicly in a blog post. It had assumed that the hack affected 2.9 million accounts, which included customer names, encrypted credit or debit card numbers, expiration dates, and other information relating to customer orders. The software company had learnt that the source code for various flagship Adobe products including Reader, Acrobat and ColdFusion, was stolen. But recent investigations have led the company to believe that the source code for Photoshop had been stolen too.
The revised figure of the customers impacted by the attack includes "the company's Photoshop family of graphical design products," according to Brian Krebs of the Krebs on Security blog, who first reported the breach.
As a preventive measure, Adobe advises its customers to change the password not just for their Adobe accounts but also on the sites where a similar password has been used.
