One of the world’s most popular web browser Firefox and social media giant Facebook came together to temporarily blackout Adobe Flash Player following reports of several deadly bugs in the multimedia software. News of couple of severe bugs in various versions of Adobe flash players hit the new few days ago and multiple incident of hacking were reported in last week.
As per the reports the vulnerability can allow hackers to take total control of one’s computer and have access to private information.
In several hacking and security breach incident reported over last few days, it became clear that the vulnerability can pose severe threat to devices running Adobe Flash. But when Facebook’s top security executive Alex Stamos called on Adobe to discontinue its faulty software.
“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,” Stamos stated in a tweet.
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
Soon Firefox also joined forces with Facebook and announced temporary shutdown of all version of Flash on Mozilla until it is safe for users.
BIG NEWS!! All versions of Flash are blocked by default in Firefox as of now. https://t.co/4SjVoqKPrR #tech #infosec pic.twitter.com/VRws3L0CBW — Mark Schmidt (@MarkSchmidty) July 14, 2015
Flash player shutdown by Firefox was the last strand to make it clear that entire Silicon Valley is on war against Adobe for taking users security so lightly. Consequently, Adobe put an end to the blackout by releasing a patch for the bugs within few hours of the shut down.
Adobe flash player had a long infamous relationship with bugs and security breach. Security concerns were the main reason why Apple maintained distance from Adobe Flash Player for its Safari browser. Google owned YouTube already uses HTML 5 by default since January 2015.
Neither Facebook nor Firefox officially parted ways with ‘Flash Player’ but clearly the damage is done. Adobe flash player may bounce back after this recent flaw as it has done before but Adobe will have to perform a miracle to earn the trust and business of biggies from Silicon Valley again.
In the meanwhile, if you are ready to give Flash player another chance you can download the patch by visiting Adobe’s help page.
