Adobe Cyber Attack was a Lesson for Corporations

Last week, hackers attacked Adobe Systems, making off with source code and private information of nearly three million customers.

Adobe emphasized the fact the hackers only got away with "encrypted" data and told its customers not to worry. The company offered US customers one year of free credit monitoring, just to be cautious.

Encrypted data, according to security experts, is much safer than decrypted data. If the hackers had gotten away with decrypted information, the customers' accounts would be in immediate jeopardy. With encrypted data, the hackers must figure out the decryption process which could prove to be time consuming, depending on its complexity, which allowed Adobe to alert its customers, banks, and law enforcement, as well as change account information of the affected accounts. Not all personal information was encrypted, such as email addresses and physical addresses, so customers ought to be wary of spammers. Many companies, not just Adobe, leave such "personally identifiable information" decrypted. This is relatively standard procedure, though data privacy laws and 44 states require this information to be encrypted.

Other stolen information was source code. "The risk is elevated because the attackers can now analyze the stolen source code and identify vulnerabilities that were unknown. They can then develop exploits for these vulnerabilities (zero days),"said Ziv Mador, director of Security Research at SpiderLabs. SpiderLabs' focus is to figure out vulnerabilities in companies, including large corporations, using penetration testing or ethical hacking. The stolen source code points to a larger issue that even resourceful companies can be attacked and breached; the security systems in place must be enhanced.

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