Dropped by porn site, can Flash survive?

If you stream video, play web-based games or watch online animations, you have surely used Adobe’s Flash player plug-in. But problems have plagued the software, and new options for streaming may mean the end of Adobe’s dominance.

The recent news that the porn site Porn.com has dropped Flash is just the latest sign of the technology’s demise, according to Wired. Earlier this year, hackers discovered additional security flaws that leave Flash vulnerable to attack, and Facebook’s security chief called on Adobe to fix the problems.

But Adobe failed to act, and Flash remains vulnerable. In response, Google’s Chrome browser and Mozilla’s Firefox both blocked Flash, and Google also restricted the use of ads that play using Flash.

Other software for video streaming and animations are quickly replacing Flash. YouTube and Facebook are switching almost all video to HTML5 players in place of Flash, and Porn.com has also made the same switch in all but the older browser versions.

While hackers can attack virtually any software, internet browsers and associated plug-ins are their most common entry points, according to one expert. In recent years, Flash has been among the most commonly attacked plug-ins, with hackers taking advantage of multiple vulnerabilities.

Still, Flash continues to be used on millions of browsers, and even Facebook and Google are keeping it as a backup, so experts believe Flash may be in for a long, slow death.