they wanted to know me better

Nov 25, 2013

I am one of the many victims of Adobe’s recent security breach. Attackers wanted to know me better! I first received an email alert but it’s official now that I’ve received notification through the USPS. Sadly, my notification came WEEKS after my bank was notified, called me, cancelled that card and issued me a new one. Why did it take Adobe so long? (My letter is dated 11/8/13, postmarked 11/19/13 and from what I’ve read, the hack happened on 10/3/13.)

stealing makes me sad

I’ve owned Adobe products since I purchased my first computer — and that’s been a very long time ago, you guys. Their products are EXPENSIVE and they’ve always been so protective of THEIR STUFF (I don’t know how many times I’ve had to dig a box out of the closet or frantically look for a confirmation email to obtain that 500 character long code and re-enter it), it ticks me off to find that they weren’t quite so aggressive in protecting MY STUFF. Of course, this hack has also put their products out there to be pirated (and worse!!), as well.

The Huffington Post reported that, “It all started when Adobe reported the breach of more than 3 million customers’ information (including password-identifying information), then upped the number to 38 million. Last week it got a whole lot worse when an outside company found the data of some 152 million Adobe customers on a site frequented by cybercriminals. That could mean that the Adobe hack is the largest in history.”

Sure, Adobe says they “deeply regret this incident occurred” and have offered me one year of “ProtectMyID Alert” membership for free — but starting Saturday night, the corporate email account I use ONLY for purchasing business items began receiving approximately 20 messages PER MINUTE!! Now this email account has never before received SPAM and I’ve had it for at least 8 years. Coincidence? Maybe… what do you think? (If you think this is a result of yet ANOTHER large corporation being hacked, please don’t tell me.)

Several years ago I had an MSN account that I had paid to upgrade. Somehow (the Indianapolis Cybercrime Division thought my info had been stolen from my own mailbox), my credit card and MSN account info was used to pay for dating sites — LOTS AND LOTS of dating sites. The info was mine, the face used was of another Crothersville person. When I called to cancel my MSN account, it was impossible. Why? Because the thief had changed my password! It was incredibly difficult to stop being a victim.

I don’t know how much has changed between then and now (if anything), but I remember being really disappointed that more help wasn’t available. At the time, I was told cyber crimes were on the rise at such an active pace my home state didn’t have the manpower to do much to perpetrators (no time to track down the bajillion cyber criminals) — and I would imagine other states were in the same boat. No repercussions… no accountability… it’s my guess hacks have just kept escalating throughout the years. Why not?