Adobe Retiring Support for Flash at Year’s End

Flash Player—the familiar Adobe web application that first premiered in 1996—is finally going into retirement at the end of the year. This is quite a big deal, as Flash Player was (at least initially) instrumental to many of the platforms that so many rely on these days. However, what will this mean for your business?

Chances Are, Not Much

In all honesty, Flash hasn’t been the most reliable for some time now, often creating difficulties. It hasn’t been supported on most mobile devices and modern browsers for some time. That, combined with the numerous other and better options available today, has made Flash Player a thing of the past.

Hence, Adobe’s abandonment of the solution, as well as the actions that Microsoft and Apple have taken to distance it from their respective platforms and those of the many Internet browsers that have removed it. In all likelihood, you haven’t encountered Flash Player in some time. We just wanted to remind you to remove it from your systems before it contributes to some considerable security risks.

However, this hasn’t made Flash Player any less well known. As a result, it could soon easily be used as a means of attacking your employees.

Phishing Attacks Could Soon Use Flash as a Tactic

Think of it this way: one of your team members clicks on the wrong link and sees a pop-up window appear. The window tells them to download the latest version of Flash to continue.

They do so, and boom. Malware.

Whenever a software solution of any kind is no longer supported, it no longer receives any security updates of any kind. This means that any system that solution is installed on has a potential security vulnerability that a cybercriminal could use to their advantage. To avoid this, it is crucial that you keep all of the solutions on your business’ infrastructure fully updated and (when the time comes) that you remove any software that is unused or no longer safe to use.

If your business is running software that utilizes Adobe Flash, you may start running into issues. There’s not much we can do if that’s the case, since the nearly 30-year-old technology is essentially going away. If your current software requires Adobe Flash, it’s time to start looking to upgrade to modern software.

Preferred can help you on both fronts. With our managed IT services, we can keep your entire IT environment optimized and secured, enabling you and your team to be productive without worrying about the reliability of your tools. Interested in learning more? Give us a call at 708-781-7110 today.