Adobe came under fire a few weeks ago when news was brought to light that critical user data was being sent to their servers from anyone using Adobe Digital Editions 4. The most important aspect of this story was that it was being done in clear text, with no encryption. Adobe has just patched ADE 4, to solve this issue.
Adobe Digital Editions is used by millions of users all over the world that buy eBooks from online stores and want to send them to their device. In addition, this program is also used by people who borrow digital titles from their library and want to load them on their e-Reader.
There is no automatic update tool packaged in ADE, which means you have to manually update the program for MAC or Windows.
Adobe has confirmed that they have added “Enhanced security for transmitting rights management and licensing validation information. With this latest version of Digital Editions 4.0.1, the data is sent to Adobe in a secure transmission (using HTTPS).” In other words, it is no longer being sent in clear text and instead is being encrypted.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.