Wyden asks federal agencies to ditch Adobe Flash
Sen. Ron Wyden has called on federal agencies to stop using Adobe Flash, multimedia software that has consistently proven vulnerable over the years.
Adobe will stop providing security updates for Flash in 2020, and Wyden, D-Ore., wants agencies charged with issuing federal cybersecurity guidance to get Flash off government systems before then.
“At that point, Flash’s existing cybersecurity risks will only be compounded,” Wyden wrote in a July 25 letter to the heads of the Department of Homeland Security, National Security Agency, and National Institute of Standards and Technology. “The federal government has too often failed to promptly transition away from software that has been decommissioned.” The missive asks DHS, NIST, and the NSA to work together to produce a policy, effective within 60 days of its issuance, that bans the use of new Flash-based content on federal websites.
