The early Internet’s most famous video and animation plugin, Flash, has finally been officially discontinued by its developer Adobe.
Flash is a name that most people who surfed the Internet throughout the 2000s will almost definitely have heard of. A name synonymous with a host of interactive games, rich animations and videos that accompanied the earlier days of the World Wide Web that many of us would happily load up to waste an idle 5 minutes or 2 hours.
Flash was the software behind the early creation of online multimedia content, and its accompanying player, aptly named Flash Player, allowed us to watch that content within the confines of our Internet browsers. But the best bit? Flash encoded such content exceptionally well, meaning small sized files that were ideal for those with slow dial-up Internet connections. At its peak it was used by a plethora of top multimedia websites including YouTube.
But as the Internet progressed, Adobe not only struggled to keep Flash relevant, they also failed to keep it secure. The software was laden with security vulnerabilities, and it was these vulnerabilities that resulted in attempts at transitioning it to the burgeoning mobile market being ultimately abandoned.
Line Rider. One of many addictive and simple games that owe their popularity because of Flash.
Flash was an inherently insecure technology, and was the target for countless malware scams. Many zero-day vulnerabilities using Flash allowed crooks to execute code remotely on a victim’s computer which would subsequently allow malware to install.
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Another popular attack method frequently employed by Internet scammers was to trick online surfers into downloading fake Flash plugins, falsely claiming that it was needed to watch a video or play a game. Once downloaded, malware would infect that user’s device.
It’s poor reputation in the world of cyber security was also partly the motivation of Steve Jobs writing a scathing open letter announcing that Flash would not be supported by any Apple devices.
Cut off from Apple devices and mobile devices, Flash’s days would soon be numbered, and amid a waning market share, perhaps the final blow came with the emergence of HTML5, a superior more embraced technology that equalled Flash’s capabilities without the need for installing a separate plugin.
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In 2017, Adobe announced the inevitable. 2020 would be the software’s last year.
With Flash now officially retired, users can surf online knowing that any prompt to download the multimedia plugin will now almost certainly be a scam. It also means that with the software officially retired, technology reporters from around the world can also retire their templates about yet another flash vulnerability providing cyber crooks with nefarious opportunities they should never have been able to acquire.
While Flash has secured its place into Internet history, it is quite right that this piece of Internet nostalgia is coming to an end. Another relic of a digital age gone by as the ever expansive technology community intrepidly moves on to bigger and better things.
Adobe has asked all remaining users to uninstall the software before January 12th at which time Flash content will stop working.