“Adobe has urged users of its Flash Player plug-in to install an update to protect themselves against the risk of hackers hijacking their PCs,” BBC News reports. “It cited a “critical vulnerability” in older versions and said it had become aware of reports that cybercriminals had worked out a way to exploit it.”
“A new version of the multimedia player has been made available for download for Windows, Mac and Linux computers,” The Beeb reports. “This is the latest in a series of setbacks for the company.”
“The California-based software maker acknowledged that usernames and encrypted passwords had been stolen from about 38 million of its active account holders last year. And Flash vulnerability alerts frequently appear on security firms’warning lists,” The Beeb reports. “Apple is now blocking the use of older versions of Flash on its Safari web browser. The firm introduced a ‘sandbox’ feature to its Mavericks operating system in October that stops the Flash plug-in from running automatically. Users must first give it permission to activate and Apple can also disable the software remotely.”
“Although many websites still use Flash to provide videos, graphics, games and other content, large numbers of developers have switched to using the web language HTML 5 to create such effects,” The Beeb reports. “This has been spurred on by the fact that Flash is not supported on Apple’s iOS platform and has been pulled from Google’s Android Play store.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Steve Jobs wins: Adobe Flash for Android dies tomorrow – August 14, 2012
Adobe ceases development on Flash Player for mobile, refocuses efforts on HTML5 – November 9, 2011
Study: iOS users view 80% of mobile video – May 23, 2011
Apple CEO Steve Jobs was right about Adobe’s Flash – May 2, 2011
Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen believes his firm doesn’t need Apple or the iPad – August 16, 2010
Steve Jobs posts rare open letter: Thoughts on Flash – April 29, 2010
