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A recent update from Adobe Flash has a security vulnerability that can allow hackers to access your PC. The top 3 Internet giants; Chrome, Facebook, and Firefox have disabled the Adobe Flash plugin in order to protect users from being hacked. The vulnerability is alleged to allow hackers to take over user’s computers and access private information for cyber crime. If you are running Adobe Flash at the moment, it is best advised to steer clear of it.
“Successful exploitation could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system,” according to a statement from Adobe. The problem affects Windows, Mac, and Linux computers.
Most users on Facebook and Chrome can see updates of the plugin being unsupported as shown in the image above. If you wish to disable Flash in chrome, type “chrome://plugins/” without the “ “ and disable flash as shown below.
If you want to disable Flash in Firefox, follow the steps: Press CTRL + Shift + A, go to plugin tab, find flash and in the drop down box, choose “Never Activate” Save, apply the changes and exit.
Adobe has been quick to patch the vulnerability and Flash version 18.0.0.209 will address this security vulnerability. Despite the fix, there are still protests on how Flash should be deactivated since HTML5 already provides a lighter, faster and secure plugin implemented in many popular sites such as YouTube.
Facebook Security Chief, Alex Stamos, believes that Adobe should be done with Flash now.
It is time for Adobe to announce the end-of-life date for Flash and to ask the browsers to set killbits on the same day.
— Alex Stamos (@alexstamos) July 12, 2015
