Spoiler Alert: Potential Security Flaw in Adobe Flash

Erica Gamet

The game of internet vulnerability-security leapfrog continues, this time involving Adobe’s Flash multimedia player. A flaw in Flash that recently came to light could allow potential hackers to exploit the software to steal login credentials on some websites. The potentially vulnerable sites—including popular social media sites like Instagram, Tumblr, and Twitter—have worked to put new safeguards in place.

Apple’s security now blocks versions of Flash earlier than the most recent one (14.0.0.145) from even running on their machines. In addition, Adobe has released a critical update of the Flash player in response to the security threat. If you are running an older machine, there is also an update to previous versions of Flash (13.0.0.231). Check to see if you have the latest version on Adobe’s site.