The cyber attack on Adobe is just another example in a wave of global attacks targeting personal and business financial data.
Adobe, the software company behind Acrobat, Photoshop and InDesign has experienced a data breach, potentially compromising the data of 2.9 million customers, including customer names, encrypted credit or debit card numbers, expiration dates, and other information relating to customer orders.
“Our investigation currently indicates that the attackers accessed Adobe customer IDs and encrypted passwords on our systems,” said Brad Arkin, Adobe chief security officer in a Customer Security Announcement on October 3rd.
Adobe has reset passwords on customers’ accounts and recommended that customers change their passwords on any other website where they may have used the same user ID and password. The company has alerted the banks processing customer payments, as well as federal law enforcement.
Adobe also said it would give affected customers the option of enrolling in a one-year complimentary credit monitoring membership where available.
What’s the threat?
According to Brian Krebs, of the KrebsonSecurity blog, the threat is that the Adobe hackers could have hidden zero-day exploit code within a PDF document, or Flash animations, to create weaponised content. They would then use a spear-phishing email to deliver the weaponised content to the targeted user. “When the user opens the attachment or watches the animation, the exploit code exploits the vulnerability to silently download malware on the user’s machine. The user isn’t aware that this download has happened. But this malware, often a Remote Access Trojan (RAT), enables the attacker to access sensitive data or even gain full control over the user’s machine” explains Krebs.
Lessons Learned
These breaches underscore the importance of organizations continuously monitoring their systems for suspicious changes and unknown programs on their systems, as well as providing their employees with security awareness training.
Once the breach happens, it is imperative that a business continuity plan be executed in a timely manner and that the proper communication be established with the public.
Please feel free to contact ABEX and WatSec for more information on how you can effectively manage your cyber risks.
Based on a global survey of over 500 executives, Lloyd’s Risk Index is calculated to show the top risks for businesses. Cyber risk has jumped from the 12th spot on the list of risks for businesses in 2011 to the third spot in 2013. Surprisingly, business leaders still remain unaware of just how devastating this kind of attack can be.
