The Hacking of Adobe (And what it taught us about Password Protection)

Early October’s security breach at Adobe came at a bad time for the company and its customers, as they recently eschewed boxed software for its popular graphics software suite in favor of Cloud-delivered “software as a service” (SaaS) alternative. Over 38 million users were affected, with 4 million of those having their credit card information compromised.   One lesson learned from the Adobe hacking incident is that many of stolen passwords were poorly designed, with some users actually repeating their password in the “password hint” field. Password protection is becoming increasingly important in this era of mobile-enabled Cloud Computing. Here are some of the common mistakes Adobe users made when creating their passwords.   Don’t use Numbers in a Sequence for a Password! A variety of number sequences held prominent spots in the top 20 password list from the hacked Adobe accounts. “123456” was by far the most common password, with nearly two million users sharing that same sequence. Almost a half-million users took the extra effort to add three additional digits, making “123456789” number two on the list.   “1234”, “1234567”, “1234567890”, and “12345678” also were on the top 20 password list — nearly a half-million more users used those passwords. “000000”, “111111”, and the innovatively created, “654321” also made the cut. In short, don’t use numbers in a sequence when creating a password! buying guide on pocket knives  Other Popular Adobe Passwords Other passwords on the top 20 included “password”, “photoshop”, “macromedia”, “adobe123”, and “qwerty.” It’s obvious that many users don’t take password creation seriously. A strong password needs to include both capital and lower-case letters, more than one numeric character, and a special character or two. Be sure to regularly change passwords, and don’t use the same password for more than one online account.   Don’t let the threat of hackers dissuade you from a rewarding career in one of the STEM disciplines. Scientific Search is one of the top technical staffing companies in the Eastern United States. Be sure to schedule some time with one of their knowledgeable recruiters to take your career to the next level.