When PDFs Attack!

Gaping security hole in Adobe Acrobat Reader
Can expose your computer to big problems

Whether you’re creating audio or video products, supplementing them with downloadable PDFs is a great strategy to boost value and ensure satisfied customers.

But a recently discovered gaping security hole in Adobe Acrobat Reader – the most popular free program that lets you view PDFs – could open your computer to malicious attacks from hackers.

It’s a bit alarming, because PDFs are so common. I bet you’ve downloaded one or two just this month.

What are the implications of this problem? And is there any way you can protect yourself?

First, no one is immune, even if you know your PDFs are pristine. The problems begin when hackers attach malicious code to the download link.

The process is described in greater detail here:

That’s the bad news. The good news is there are very simple ways to protect yourself.

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

Rest assured, at Audacious Audio, we have already taken measures to ensure the PDFs you download from our website, as part of a product or free bonus, are not affected by this issue. More on this below.

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

You’ll need to protect yourself in two ways: from the PDFs you download, and the PDFs your customers may be downloading from your website.

Protect Yourself from PDFs You May Download

Luckily, the fix is simple. Update your current version of Adobe Acrobat Reader to Version 8. If your current operating system is incompatible with 8, Adobe has created a fix, Version 7.0.9 that should work for you.

More details, along with an update download link can be found here.

Protect Your Customers from PDFs They May
Download from You

If you make PDFs available from your website you will need to update a setting in your hosting account. Here are the steps I took to safeguard the PDFs on AudaciousAudio.com:

1. You can do this, but the process is a bit geeky, even for me. So I recommend enlisting help from the support folks at your web host.
   
   
2. I logged onto my hosting account and used their live chat feature to have them walk me through the process. I could have used phone support. But the chat feature made it very easy for me to send them the links they would need to help walk me through the process.
   
   
3. I sent my chat helper the following links:
   
   http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6147428.html?tag=nl.e539
   
   This is the link at the beginning of this post that describes the issue. This was helpful, as my support rep didn’t know about the problem yet.
   
   http://www.adobe.com/support/security/advisories/apsa07-02.html
   
   This link shows you what you need to do to safeguard the PDFs your customers access.
   
   
4. After viewing the link, the rep walked me through the process of making changes within the Control Panel of my hosting account. It was pretty simple with him guiding me.
   

Once again, at Audacious Audio we’ve already made these changes, so you don’t need to worry about our PDFs.

But I’d heartily recommend you take the steps above to protect yourself by upgrading your version of Acrobat Reader, And to enlist the help of your web hosting service to protect your customers from PDFs they may download from your site.