In the past, when you wanted to update your Adobe software, you would outlay a massive lump sum and receive a physical copy of the programs. In recent years, however, Adobe changed this system. Now, to use their Creative Suite you have to subscribe and pay a monthly fee, which gives you access to all of their programs. The numerous programs included in this package will continue to work as long as your subscription is active.

While this is great in theory, the new system does have some vulnerabilities - as was discovered this week when Adobe's systems were hacked and the data of over 2.9 million subscribers was stolen. The hackers gained access to users':

• Adobe ID (normally an email address)
• the encrypted password for that account
• full name
• address
• encrypted credit/debit card number
• credit/debit card CVV
• credit/debit card expiration date

Hours before an official statement was made by Adobe, KrebsOnSecurity announced that 40 GB of source code had been discovered on a server used by the same cyber criminals who are accused of hacking into major data aggregators earlier in 2013. They reported that the uncompiled and compiled code "appeared to be source code for ColdFusion and Adobe Acrobat."

After sharing this information with Adobe, they received confirmation that the company has been investigating a network breach since the 17th of September this year. KrebsOnSecurity reported that Adobe believe their systems were compromised sometime in mid-August after hackers made use of vulnerabilities in "some type of out-of-date" software.

On the 4th of October, Adobe released official statements regarding the hacking (which you can read here and here) and sent an email to the subscribers they believe have been targeted.

The first thing they recommend you do is log in to your Adobe account and request a password reset. (Adobe should have already done this on your behalf if they believed your account was at risk, but it's probably best if everyone does it just in case.)

Adobe's sites and application managers are running extremely slowly at the moment due to the increased traffic caused by this event. You may have issues accessing the Creative Cloud and updating your credit card and account information. We recommend that you stay patient and persist, as updating your account information is vital for your security.

You may also encounter the error of having to reset your password multiple times. Adobe reset our password for us, and we then logged in and created a new one of our own. When we next when to log in using this new password the system didn't recognise that it had already been changed and forced us to reset it again. This is frustrating, we know, but it's necessary.

If you have used that same email address and password on any other websites, even if they seem inconsequential, you should reset your account details for those websites as well. If you don't do this the hackers may gain access to other accounts and other personal information, which could lead to further monetary losses or even identity theft.

Apart from these two pieces of advice, which we agree with, Adobe have been fairly blasé when it comes to rectifying the matter. The official statement in the email and on their Customer Security Alert Page advises subscribers to simply monitor the effected account. They suggest that you regularly review account statements and monitor credit card reports.

If you live in the U.S. you also have the option of enrolling in a complimentary credit monitoring Adobe membership for the next year, but if you live anywhere else you're on your own.

They state that they are mailing out a notification letter to customers they believe have been effected, which will have "additional information on steps they can take to help protect themselves against potential misuse of personal information". They also claim to have notified the banks that process customer payments for Adobe, so they can "work together... to help protect customers' accounts".

While a nice sentiment, both of these statements could lead to inaction and make your information more vulnerable. You should not wait for a letter from Adobe (which could take weeks to arrive for their international customers) and you should contact your bank immediately, because Adobe probably haven't done so.

As soon as we were alerted of the security breach we contacted our bank ourselves, informing them of what had happened and exactly what information had been accessed. They told us that they had not been informed by Adobe and this was the first they'd heard of the issue. They immediately cancelled the credit card and issued us with a new pin and a new card, which will take seven days to be delivered to us.

The bank staff discussed the issue of credit card fraud with us and informed us that, after decryption, the hackers and their associates will normally test the card's validity by withdrawing a small amount such as $1. If that withdrawal is successful, they will then go on to withdraw increasingly substantial sums of money until there are insufficient funds or the bank notices the unauthorised transactions and cancels the card.

This process can happen immediately, but in most cases the thieves will on sell the information to other criminals, who may wait months before testing your account information.

If you were to take Adobe's advice and simply monitor your account, you could be checking every transaction record for months and months before you noticed anything astray. It's highly likely that you would become less vigilant as time wore on, and by the time you noticed the first small withdrawal your account could be emptied.

Take the banks' advice and save yourself the hassle; be proactive and cancel your card now. This will save any further stress and worry you'll have about money being withdrawn at a later date, ensuring that your funds are protected.

On their forums Adobe are receiving hundreds of questions from concerned customers about whether or not their information has been taken and what they can do to fix it. In most cases Adobe are sending a prompt but generic reply simply repeating the information in their email - wait for a hardcopy letter, and just monitor your account. If you cancel your card now, before the criminals can take any money, you'll save yourself pain and you'll also save Adobe from having to answer one more question on their forums.

To deal with the breach, security updates for Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat have been released. If you haven't already, you can protect yourself further by downloading and installing the updates. Adobe are also working closely with law enforcement and other external partners to catch the organisation behind the hacking and to prevent a similar incident from recurring.

As you can see, not updating your software can have disastrous consequences. If it can happen to a global corporation like Adobe, with millions of customers, think of how easily it can happen to you. If you haven't updated your CMS do so immediately, because you are putting yourself and all of your clients at risk.

If you have any questions or concerns about your security, feel free to contact us using our User Support system if you're an existing customer. If you don't already have an account you can get in touch with us through a variety of other ways; see our Contact, Facebook, Twitter and Google+ pages.