Adobe Systems Agrees to $1 Million Settlement, Security Updates

NEWTON, MA – Adobe Systems, Inc. has agreed to pay $1 million and implement new policies and practices to prevent security breaches, bringing to a close a multi-state investigation into a 2013 data breach, according to the state attorney general's office.

Massachusetts will receive $70,000 from that settlement. According to authorities, the breach involved the personal information of more than 50,000 residents of the Bay State.

In September 2013, Adobe received an alert that the hard drive for one of its application servers was nearing capacity. Upon responding, the company learned that an unauthorized attempt was being made to decrypt customer payment card numbers maintained on the server.

An internal investigation yielded that at least one unauthorized intruder had used a public-facing web server to access other servers on Adobe's network, including areas where Adobe stored consumer data. The intruder ultimately stole encrypted payment card numbers and expiration dates, names, addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, usernames and passwords, the attorney general's office said.

Authorities allege that the attack was foreseeable, and Adobe did not take reasonable steps to protect its customers' information.

"Consumers who entrust a company with their personal data should have that trust respected," Attorney General Maura Healey said in a statement. "Adobe put consumers’ personal data at risk of being compromised by a data breach, and that is unacceptable. This settlement will put in place important new practices to ensure that a breach like this does not happen again."

Arkansas, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Vermont also participated in the investigation.

Adobe's Massachusetts headquarters is located on Washington Street in Newton.

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