Adobe Flash Has Reached End of Life Status - Olmec Skip to main content

Adobe Flash Has Reached End of Life Status

By January 11, 2021May 5th, 2022Technology News

Is your company’s website built around Adobe’s aging Flash Player? If so, be aware that you are officially on your own. Flash reached its EOL (End of Life) as of January 1st of this year (2021).

From a business perspective, you don’t have to worry that your Flash-dependent website will suddenly stop working, but from here on, you won’t be getting any additional security updates.

Unfortunately, Adobe’s Flash player is riddled with security flaws. Over the years, the company has tried gamely to patch and better secure the software but it has proved to be an impossible challenge. For every major security flaw they identify and close, at least one new one appears to take its place.

While that certainly factored into Adobe’s decision to kill the Flash player, the simple truth is that the web has outgrown the technology. Back in the earliest days of the internet, Flash was well ahead of its time. It was truly groundbreaking technology that enabled webmasters to create deep, immersive experiences that simply weren’t possible using other technologies of the day.

Now though, Flash has serious competition and in fact, the other options like HTML5 have handily surpassed Flash by most measures. That makes HTML5 hard to argue against. Not only is it more capable and optimized for the modern-day web, it’s also more secure, which makes safer to deploy on your company’s network.

The bottom line is that if you’re still using Flash, it’s well past time to devote resources to a redesign that will see you migrating away from it. While your site will still function, every day you leave Flash active on your network, you’re putting your company at increasing risk. It’s just a matter of time before a hacker stumbles across the glaring weakness on your network and takes advantage of it. You definitely don’t want that.

Chris Forte

Chris Forte, President and CEO of Olmec Systems, has been in the MSP workspace for the past 25 years. Chris earned his Master’s Degree from West Virginia University, graduating Magna Cum Laude. He was a past member of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, a current member of the New Jersey Power Partners and Executive Association of New Jersey, where he has previously served on its board of directors. In his spare time, Chris enjoys traveling with his family. He also admits to being a struggling golfer and avid watcher of college football and basketball. He currently lives in Boonton Township, NJ with his wife, two daughters, son, and black lab Luna.