November 14, 2013

Adobe Software Breach

Adobe Software users may be affected by a security breach at the company.

By Mike Holliday

In October, Adobe suffered a serious data breach that exposed all of their registered user accounts. Anyone who has ever purchased or registered their Adobe software, or signed up for announcements, has been exposed and will potentially be targeted for attacks.

In this message, we want to communicate major action points for those who may have become vulnerable due to this breach:

1. CHANGE PASSWORDS IMMEDIATELY
   • Anyone who used the same password for Adobe and other accounts (especially SVSU) should immediately change their passwords at the other locations and monitor for unusual activity.
      
2. RESET YOUR ADOBE PASSWORD and HINTS
   • You should do this by manually visiting the Adobe website, and not by clicking on links arriving via email.
      
3. BE AWARE!
   • Be aware that additional phishing attempts will likely come to your account(s).
   • Do not open attachments - scrutinize the message(s) for authenticity.
   • Do not respond directly to messages seeking personal information. this includes username and password, or credit card information.
   • Do not click on links provided in messages (go to the proper site manually).
   • Be careful to not fall victim to phishing attempts that require you to provide credentials, for lack of service or to gain services.
       
4. DO NOT USE YOUR INSTITUTIONAL PASSWORD for external web sites or Internet services.
   • If you reuse a password at multiple locations, when the password is compromised at one site, the miscreants then can gain access to all sites where you've used that password.
   • The best policy is to always use different passwords for different accounts.