Critical Adobe Flash exploit leaves your data vulnerable

Adobe released an emergency Flash Player update yesterday to patch a critical exploit. Unpatched system may allow hackers to steal your cookies and other data using Flash (.SWF) files.

Microsoft also released a slew of patches yesterday for its Windows operating systems and Internet Explorer browsers to fix this issue.

The security flaw was exploited by a Google Engineer, Michele Spagnuolo. He created a tool that successfully used this well known exploit, which finally got the attention of major tech companies. Google, Microsoft, Twitter, and more have already patched their websites to protect against this hack.

Still, you it’s better to make sure you’re running the latest version of Adobe Flash (14.0.0.145) in all your browsers. If you use Google Chrome or Internet Explorer 10/11, Flash will automatically update in the background. If you use Firefox, you’ll want to grab the latest Flash Player update here.

Adobe’s Flash Player pushes updates automatically, but it could be a few days before you see it. If you don’t want to wait, you can download the latest update below.

Adobe Flash Player for Firefox, Safari, and Opera (Windows)

Adobe Flash Player for Internet Explorer

Adobe Flash Player for Mac

Via: Engadget

Source: KrebsOnSecurity

RELATED STORIES

• avast! easily recovers user data from wiped Android phones
• Everything you need to know about Facebook’s psychological experiment
• Microsoft increases security of its online services