Millions of credit card numbers and passwords stolen in Adobe hack

Adobe announced late Thursday that it suffered a major security breach that jeopardizes the personal information of approximately three million customers.

Adobe's chief security officer, Brad Arkin, wrote that "[o]ur investigation currently indicates that the attackers accessed Adobe customer IDs and encrypted passwords on our systems. We also believe the attackers removed from our systems certain information relating to 2.9 million Adobe customers, including customer names, encrypted credit or debit card numbers, expiration dates, and other information relating to customer orders."

Arkin argued for calm, noting that "[a]t this time, we do not believe the attackers removed decrypted credit or debit card numbers from our systems." Federal law enforcement has been informed, as have its banking and payment partners. The company will reset some of the compromised passwords and ask customers to re-verify their credit information in the coming weeks.

They company also said that it will offer a year's free membership in a credit monitoring service to any customer whose information was compromised in this breach.

["A frightened hacker" on Shutterstock]