Adobe Patchs 23 Flash Flaws – Enough Is Enough
Adobe announced patches yesterday for 23 additional Flash vulnerabilities. 18 of these bugs can be used to run malicious code on the underlying computer.
To see what version you are running, go to:
WWW.Adobe.com/software/flash/about
That web page will give you the version that you are running, the current version that you should be running and a link to the download page.
On my computer, I run Firefox and Chrome.
On Chrome I have Flash disabled completely. To do that, open Chrome and type
Chrome://plugins – you will get a screen that looks like this (click to enlarge). You should look at what plugins you are running and decided which ones you want to run and which ones you want to disable.
Chrome IMMEDIATELY disables Flash if you do this – if you have browser windows open with Flash objects in it, those objects will go away. On the other hand, if you enable it, you have to click on the page refresh to make the Flash object reappear.
In Firefox, you have to go to
You will see a page that looks like this. Find the SHOCKWAVE FLASH addon. I set it to Ask to activate, but you can select Never activate. If you set it to ask, Firefox displays a box where the Flash object should be with a link. The link asks you if you want to activate it one time or always – Should you want to display a Flash object I recommend selecting One time.
Curiously, the Flash installer requires you to activate Flash in order to run the installer.
It is surprising how many sites still use Flash, but the number is decreasing every day because a lot of businesses are blocking Flash as a security enhancement.
The biggest benefit is the number of ads that won’t run – reducing page load times.
Still, it is a personal decision – kind of like paper, plastic or your own grocery bag. Some web sites will not work without Flash, so you have to decide.
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