Adobe Flash end of life – What you need to know
Hello! Adam here. I wanted to take a moment to talk about Adobe Flash reaching end of life and some actions we are taking as a result. You might have some questions so let us dive in. What is Adobe Flash? Adobe Flash is a piece of software that helped display web content as well as some applications. You may best remember it as the piece of software you needed to watch YouTube videos back around 2010. What is end of life? End of life means that the software will no longer be receiving updates and/or will stop working completely. You may remember us talking a lot about this when talking about Windows 7 only a year or so ago. The death of Adobe Flash is straight forward from a technology perspective. Flash has had numerous security flaws for years and Adobe decided that the best route forward was to end the product. While it was widely used some time ago, technology changes have since made the product largely unnecessary. As a result, modern web browsers are going to be removing their Flash integrations with updates soon. Additionally, Adobe in their final update added wording advising that the software be uninstalled – but more importantly that as of January 12, 2021 Adobe will actively block all flash content from running in their software. This means that ALL websites and services that rely on Flash will cease to function. Websites and services that use Flash must update to use a more modern standard. Unfortunately, this is something outside of Simplex-IT’s control. Once this deadline passes there is no need for a piece of software known for its security vulnerabilities to live on our client’s workstations as that creates risk. Our Senior Technical Team is already writing and testing methods to remove the software across our client base. Once testing completes, we will be activating this automation after the January 12th cutoff. We anticipate little to no impact on end user devices. So, what do you need to do? Honestly, there is not much you can do. Adobe has taken the actions on their end and we are following suit with our necessary action. However, if you or your staff utilizes a website that uses Adobe Flash you may need to reach out to the provider of that site asking them to upgrade, otherwise on Jan 12 the site will no longer function properly. If you have any questions, please reach out! Thank you and have a safe holiday season!