Adobe Systems Inc said on Thursday that hackers had stolen source code to some of its most popular software, as well as data about millions of its customers.
Security experts worry about the theft of source code, because close review of the programs can lead to the discovery of new flaws that can be used to launch hard-to-detect attacks against all users of that software.
The hackers took source code for Adobe Acrobat, which is used to create electronic documents in the PDF format, as well as ColdFusion and ColdFusion Builder, used to create Internet applications, Adobe said.
Adobe chief security officer Brad Arkin said the company had been investigating the breach since its discovery two weeks ago and that it had no evidence of any attacks based on the theft.
“Based on our findings to date, we are not aware of any specific increased risk to customers as a result of this incident,” Arkin wrote on an Adobe blog.
Arkin said hackers also took information on 2.9 million Adobe customers, including their names, user identification numbers, encrypted passwords and payment card numbers. He said the attacks may be related.
The company said it was resetting passwords for affected customers worldwide and warning people to change any passwords reused at other sites. The US Department of Homeland Security’s computer incident response team on Thursday warned that Adobe customers should be on the alert for fraud.
Adobe said it was working with banks and federal law enforcement to mitigate intrusions on customer accounts and to pursue those responsible.
The firm said it had been helped by cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs and security expert Alex Holden, who found a cache of Adobe code while probing attacks at three major US data providers.
Krebs wrote on his blog, KrebsonSecurity.com, on Thursday that the two men discovered the code while investigating breaches at Dun & Bradstreet Corp, Altegrity Inc’s Kroll Background America Inc and Reed Elsevier’s LexisNexis Inc.
He said the Adobe code was on a server that he believed was used by those who hacked into LexisNexis and the others. The hackers offered social security numbers, credit report information and other highly sensitive data for sale over the Internet and had access inside the companies’ Web sites through hacked computers, Krebs said.
In a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, Adobe said: “We do not believe that the attacks will have a material adverse impact on our business or financial results,” it said. “It is possible, nevertheless, that this incident could have various adverse effects.”
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
BRAVE NEW WORLD: Nvidia believes that AI would fuel a new industrial revolution and would ‘do whatever we can’ to guide US AI policy, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Tuesday said he is ready to meet US president-elect Donald Trump and offer his help to the incoming administration. “I’d be delighted to go see him and congratulate him, and do whatever we can to make this administration succeed,” Huang said in an interview with Bloomberg Television, adding that he has not been invited to visit Trump’s home base at Mar-a-Lago in Florida yet. As head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, Huang has an opportunity to help steer the administration’s artificial intelligence (AI) policy at a moment of rapid change.
TARIFF SURGE: The strong performance could be attributed to the growing artificial intelligence device market and mass orders ahead of potential US tariffs, analysts said The combined revenue of companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange for the whole of last year totaled NT$44.66 trillion (US$1.35 trillion), up 12.8 percent year-on-year and hit a record high, data compiled by investment consulting firm CMoney showed on Saturday. The result came after listed firms reported a 23.92 percent annual increase in combined revenue for last month at NT$4.1 trillion, the second-highest for the month of December on record, and posted a 15.63 percent rise in combined revenue for the December quarter at NT$12.25 billion, the highest quarterly figure ever, the data showed. Analysts attributed the
RSS