Flash users watch out – another critical patch has just been released after yet another zero-day vulnerability has been found in the Adobe Flash software.
Flash is a piece of software installed on many computers that allows your Internet browser to play certain types of dynamic content, like video.
However over the years the popularity of Flash has diminished, and many websites provide work-arounds that allow their content to play even if the user does not have Flash installed. iPad and iPhones have never supported Flash content.
Flash has a bad name in the security industry, mainly because it is a security risk. Generally, unless you explicitly need it (for example, certain browser-based games require it) we recommend uninstalling it.
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For the third month in a row, a critical update has become available on “Patch Tuesday” (the second Tuesday of the month where many companies release security updates) that fixes a zero-day vulnerability (zero-day means the bad guys found the vulnerability before the good guys.)
The vulnerability could let a malicious website install a “downloader” file onto your computer, which effectively acts as a backdoor to bypass your security software and install some pretty bad stuff on your computer.
So if you use Flash, update it quick via this link – though many users software (Google Chrome, for example) will use a separate Flash plugin which will install the update automatically for you. The link will tell you what’s what.