Many business people are looking for simple solutions to replace Adobe Flash.
Numerous companies are still using quick, cheap short-term solutions, while others are looking for ways to do a complete carry-over but don’t know where to begin with.
We are here to explain why Flash Player removal should be a priority for you and the common mistakes you should avoid when doing so.
Security issues provoked by Adobe Flash and Flex are still a very relevant subject for individuals and businesses alike. However, Adobe discontinued support and availability for the service a while ago.
Adobe Flash registered 1078 vulnerabilities between 2005 and 2019, and it is currently at an even higher risk for data centres as it is no longer supported.
It can get embedded into other systems that may or may not be fundamental for data centre operations,Techradar says.
When you are looking for short-term solutions to implement when your Adobe Flex or Flash application isn’t available in current-gen browsers anymore, you must be aware that many of them can make your data more vulnerable than before.
In some cases, you may even be creating a higher security risk than Flash Player ever did, and that is a risk that we recommend avoiding.
Let’s see some solutions:
Ruffle Emulators
You can use a Ruffle emulator for a few use cases, but it does not work with Actionscript 3, and it also won’t be compatible with complex forms or database applications.
Ruffle Emulators were primarily meant to run old-school Flash games.
Using Internet Explorer Mode On Edge
Though this is a simple solution, it isn’t particularly secure.
Enabling that mode allows users to visit any website that may contain malicious code and compromise their data.
Users may be sent phishing attempts that may open in the non-secure Internet Explorer mode.
Microsoft hasn’t yet announced how long the feature will be supported, but when a new significant security risk is exposed in Flash, the chances are that Microsoft will disable that mode.
Virtual Machines
There is an option to use a virtual machine running old versions of Windows and Internet Explorer. Though it isn’t a necessarily bad solution, VMs use many resources, and they can be a bit tedious to manage and use.
They are usually separate environments that the user must “boot up” and run as if it were a separate machine in many cases, and they can be a pain for IT admins to take care of.
Also, VMs don’t make the experience more secure. Instead, they ensure that you compromise only part of your data (which is used in the VM environment).
