I'm so mad at Adobe!

I got a letter in the mail from Adobe. They were hacked. Possibly many times but in the letter it is talking about the incidents September 11th and September 17th. I read a public announcement on the Web that insinuated the data remained encrypted. Not so according to my letter. In my letter it says, "...the third party used our systems to decrypt some card numbers..." Worse, they didn't even bother to inform me until a month after the fact. The letter offered to pay some identity theft monitoring service for one year, who cares? Why would anyone just want to sit back and wait until the hackers start racking up charges? That makes no sense at all. Better to cancel those cards completely and get a brand new CC number. That's one reason why it made me so mad. So, I just had to cancel both of my cards. I have to wait a week or two to get them replaced. I'll use my checking. I don't like it, but not the end of the world.

But I've gotten much more upset trying to deal with there customer disservice department! They are horrible. Unfortunately, they don't understand English very well. I told them the Adobe systems were hacked into September 11 and September 17th and they said I should be more careful with my password. They are ridiculous. Then I'm going round and round by email with someone from Adobe who makes no sense. In the meantime, no one in customer service has expressed any empathy for the inconvenience they've caused. I think I'm done with Adobe. I don't trust them enough to give them my credit card information. I think they are a crappy company with a good product. I'm looking for an alternative. Or, maybe I'll find an older version where I don't have to get a subscription with them.

 

research Adobe CS2 download there is no subscription

just an email and a password. Maybe you can use your old password and email and still get it. No credit card needed.

 

Thank you. I thought I read something about that!
https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?e=cs2_downloads

 

Be persistent until you are a satisfied customer. That's their job.

 

Thanks for the comment. At this point, that's not going to happen. I don't trust them with my information.

Here is the Adobe version of "faqs" about this incident.

No they didn't. My bank had no idea. And to suggest that people should just watch for charges on there credit cards is highly irresponsible. The reason they don't want people cancelling is because Adobe might miss collecting on the day your monthly payment is due.

On September 11 and September 17 they were hacked and had no clue, they just discovered it during regular security monitoring. We're talking about the removal of information for 2.9 million Adobe customers, and source data for many of their products. I wonder how long it took these geniuses to figure it out. Yet supposedly they say they've become a big target for cyber attackers. If so, wouldn't they be more vigilant? The announcement was posted October 3rd on their website, which I don't read regularly, and they finally informed me on 10/25. Not exactly confidence inspiring.

In the Adobe announcement the second paragraph reads,

This paragraph is extremely similar to the second paragraph of the letter I received from them. Except in the public announcement they omitted the sentence "...the third party used our systems to decrypt some card numbers..."

The bottom line is if they're just blaming the reason they were hacked is because they are "a target for cyber attackers" chances are it's likely to happen again. And when it does, I will not be satisfied in being contacted a month later. Plus, when I then try to contact Adobe CSR's and they have no idea what's going on, and there is a big language barrier. Adobe knows this. They have the worst reputation for customer service I've ever seen. Really, you can Google it. I don't think they care.

So anyway, my plan is that I can use an older version of Photoshop that doesn't require a subscription, until eventually, I get situated with an alternative. I've heard great things about PhotoLine, that will probably be the first to try.

 

Hi Rebecca,
My name is Madison and I work for Customer Care at Adobe here in San Jose. We fully understand your frustration regarding this incident. However, if you have any further questions or need help making changes to your account, please reach out to me at (include your Adobe ID in your email). If there is anything else I can do to help, please let me know. Thank you, Madison

 

Rebecca is smiling right now I presume

 

No. I do give Madison credit for posting her email, as her inbox will no doubt be filled daily with unhappy Adobe customers. Large companies usually employ a few people for damage control. They search on the Internet for negative reviews, and reply back with generic "reaching out" messages. It just looks better for them. For the reasons listed above in my other posts (#1 and #5), I still wouldn't trust Adobe with my financial information. When you sign up for Creative Cloud at $50 a month, they charge a cancellation fee if it's been under a year. It's been about four months. At least, I can email Madison to see if they can waive that fee.

 

Update: I'm not really mad at Adobe anymore! lol. Madison emailed me yesterday to inform they cancelled my Adobe Creative Cloud subscription without any penalty. I'm glad. She seemed nice. Anyway, I was reading in the news that this was much worse than the original announcement. The BBC is reporting it was actually 38 million accounts compromised. According to the article, "According to Brian Krebs, a security blogger who first reported the breach, a file was uploaded to a hacking forum last weekend that appeared to contain millions of usernames and hashed passwords taken from Adobe." On the forum at Adobe many people are complaining. I've read some cards have been used fraudulently. One thing I was wrong about is that I said Adobe never contacted me before the letter. In the last few days, I did discover an email from them in my spam box. So they did inform me earlier than the physical letter I received by snail mail. Someday I may sign up with Adobe again, they have such wonderful software! Excellent products. If I do I'll probably just try to use some kind of prepaid Visa card.

 

It is good, but if you really remember your works with adobe.

 

You would probably need to work with adobe since there is no better replament just try to find older version you can buy from a store instead of buying it online and without subscription

 

You had a right to be mad. That was your personal information. I think the world is moving away from "closed source" software like Adobe. Try to find an "open source" alternative and your personal data will be more secure.