Flash Player is currently blocked on Firefox, here’s what it means and how other giants are also moving.
In these days, the Hacking Team incident has been making headlines, causing no small amount of trouble for thousands of companies worldwide.
Confidential data, documents, emails, and files were stolen by exploiting the very features – and flaws – of Flash Player, which has always been an “easy” target for skilled hackers.
News is circulating that Firefox has decided to block Flash, as it is now considered a tool that does not allow users to maintain a high level of security.
The Mozilla Foundation states that the block is absolutely temporary, as some action is expected from the Adobe development team.
At the same time, however, online discussions are questioning whether this latest massive incident isn’t the so-called straw that breaks the camel’s back: the hypothesis of putting an end to the Flash Player era altogether could become plausible.
The tool, initially and always opposed and banned by Apple platforms, has over time become not always welcome on Android and on various browsing browsers, up to these hours when three major security vulnerabilities have manifested very clearly and evidently.
Even from Facebook, an explicit request has been made to end the life of Flash Player: Alex Stamos, head of Facebook’s security team, used his official Twitter account to express his opinion on the matter. The following tweet can indeed be read: “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” and further, in a second tweet: “Even if 18 months from now, one set date is the only way to disentangle the dependencies and upgrade the whole ecosystem at once”.
The position of the major players in the web sector appears clear, although Adobe technicians are working to patch the three security flaws that have appeared in recent days. One of them has been effectively resolved, while the other two are reportedly being addressed.
However, elsewhere work is also underway to “get rid” of Flash: this is the case for Google, which wants to detach itself both in the Android environment and through Chrome; this is also the situation for Firefox, which has precisely blocked Flash, allowing the user to decide what to do, choosing to avoid Flash or to allow its use, keeping in mind that they will have to assume responsibility for the choice.
The scenario is decidedly evolving, both from Adobe and from the big players in the web and related fields.
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