Adobe, the big software company, announced this week that its network had been breached andinformation relating to 2.9 million customers, including creditcard data, had been stolen along with information pertaining tonumerous Adobe products.

That latter is believed to include source code – the cyberblueprint – for various Adobe titles, possibly including thepopular Acrobat, according to reporting by security blogger Brian Krebs.

The impacts on credit unions may be substantial, sources toldCredit Union Times on Friday.

Thus far Adobe has not disclosed which source code has been stolen. However, Krebs hasreported that a senior Adobe official conceded Acrobat “may” beamong the compromised apps.

In an interview, Trusteersecurity expert George Tubin shrugged off the theft of customer data, at least as faras credit unions go. Adobe has indicated that much of that data isencrypted, so it may be useless to the criminals and, beyond that,whatever pain there is will be limited to the finite group ofindividuals whose data was compromised.

The far bigger worry for credit unions, said Tubin, is the lossof the source code which may give cyber criminals more ability tocapitalize on security flaws in Adobe's products and the problem,said Tubin, is how widespread the use of them is in financialinstitutions.

He urged credit unions to make sure that they keep their Adobeproducts fully patched and updated and also to stay abreast ofAdobe's public announcements about the breach and the steps it istaking to remedy the losses.

Tubin said a byproduct down the road may be many more infectedmember and employee computers, as they innocently download Adobefiles that may have been contaminated by corrupt instances ofcriminally modified Adobe software.