What's New: Acrobat 9 Encryption Weaker, Adobe Admits

Although Adobe increased Acrobat 9 from 128-bit encryption to 256-bit encryption, a Russian security firm has discovered a change in algorithm can make it up to 100 times faster to crack a weak password than in Acrobat 8. The company says a short password with only upper and lower case letters is significantly easier to guess via brute force methods. The company suggests using a password with symbols, or else a longer password of 12 or more characters. This is always a good rule, and many experts suggest using a longer password phrase where allowed, instead of a single word.

Friday, Dec 5, 2008 11:04 am CST

Tell a friend about this news item!

Return to the article list...