Facebook’s New Chief Security Officer Wants to Set a Date to Kill Flash

Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos, posting on Twitter:

It is time for Adobe to announce the end-of-life date for Flash and to ask the browsers to set killbits on the same day.

Even if 18 months from now, one set date is the only way to disentangle the dependencies and upgrade the whole ecosystem at once.

It’d be nice if Adobe led the way on this, but it isn’t necessary. Apple forever crippled Flash by not allowing browser plugins on iOS. If just a few of the major desktop browsers did the same — say, Safari, Chrome, and Microsoft IE/Edge — Flash would die quickly. It’s already teetering.

★ Monday, 13 July 2015