Adobe Flash - what would I do without you clever folks?

Message

BikerGran · #1 Post by **BikerGran** » Fri Mar 08, 2013 5:26 pm

When I go to a news site with video (in this case the Bournemouth Daily Echo, been using it for ages quite safely) instead of the video I get a greyed-out screen with this message....

"This plug-in is vulnerable and should be updated.
Click here for updates (that's a link btw)
Click here to activate the Adobe Flash player."

Question is - should I 'click here' ? IE will this be genuine, or should I go elsewhere for the update and if so how can I be sure I'm finding a genuine site? Bit nervous cos I've heard of people downloading what they think is a genuine update from the genuine site only to find they given themselves a virus!

randomsquid · #2 Post by **randomsquid** » Fri Mar 08, 2013 6:17 pm

Being cautious is the sensible thing to do, still lots of scams about.
Go to the Adobe site and download it from there.

http://www.adobe.com/

There's a download section at the top of the page, click on Flash Player, follow along. Feel free to opt out of any pointless toolbars or virus scans that even the legit companies are pushing nowadays.

BikerGran · #3 Post by **BikerGran** » Fri Mar 08, 2013 6:57 pm

Cheers!

D-Rider · #4 Post by **D-Rider** » Fri Mar 08, 2013 6:57 pm

randomsquid wrote: Feel free to opt out of any pointless toolbars or virus scans that even the legit companies are pushing nowadays.

More than feel free - check with care every screen that comes up and opt out of every one of these toolbars etc - they are a real PITA, clutter up the PC, are often hard to remove and are usually set that by default you accept them.

Aladinsaneuk · #5 Post by **Aladinsaneuk** » Fri Mar 08, 2013 7:46 pm

there has been some nasty stuff flying around with flash recently....

as is normal, apple promptly turned it off in mac os, untill it was fixed - took an hour or so - so Steve Jobs was right after all about flash LOL

as above - NEVER use a link to update anything - go too the company website and update there....

BikerGran · #6 Post by **BikerGran** » Fri Mar 08, 2013 8:35 pm

Cheers all, done now - I know I can always rely on you!

Dalemac · #7 Post by **Dalemac** » Fri Mar 08, 2013 8:38 pm

Aladinsaneuk wrote:there has been some nasty stuff flying around with flash recently....

as is normal, apple promptly turned it off in mac os, untill it was fixed - took an hour or so - so Steve Jobs was right after all about flash LOL

as above - NEVER use a link to update anything - go too the company website and update there....

Right, so flash is bad but Java is perfectly acceptable?

If the link goes to their site (i.e. adobe.com) then there is nothing to worry about.

Aladinsaneuk · #8 Post by **Aladinsaneuk** » Fri Mar 08, 2013 9:34 pm

actually - i do the same with java....

(and java is not so bad with mac os....)

randomsquid · #9 Post by **randomsquid** » Sat Mar 09, 2013 6:34 pm

Also, if you get a phonecall from a foreign sounding person with an English sounding name who claims to want to help you mend your PC then politely decline.

I've had a couple this week.

Certainly Mr Thomas Smith I'd love you to remotely access my computers have a nose about and then try to charge me a fortune for stealing all my naked pictures of Flatlander. Bunch of spunkbubbles.

BikerGran · #10 Post by **BikerGran** » Sat Mar 09, 2013 10:21 pm

As we are ex-directory AND registered with the Telephone Preference Service - we've never had any of those sort of calls!

randomsquid · #11 Post by **randomsquid** » Sun Mar 10, 2013 1:14 pm

BikerGran wrote:As we are ex-directory AND registered with the Telephone Preference Service - we've never had any of those sort of calls!

Sad thing is I am as well.
I'm also very selective about who gets my number.
So they're either calling numbers at random or buying numbers off someone at a supposedly respectable company.

flatlander · #12 Post by **flatlander** » Sun Mar 10, 2013 10:04 pm

randomsquid wrote:....

Certainly Mr Thomas Smith I'd love you to remotely access my computers have a nose about and then try to charge me a fortune for stealing all my naked pictures of Flatlander. Bunch of spunkbubbles.

Thank god one of us does punctuation!!

also a lot of your details are widely available and harvested from perfectly respectable (supposedly) sites and directories

BikerGran · #13 Post by **BikerGran** » Sun Mar 10, 2013 10:15 pm

flatlander wrote: also a lot of your details are widely available and harvested from perfectly respectable (supposedly) sites and directories

I never leave my phone number even if asked for it - I might leave something that looks a bit like my mobile number, but NEVER my landline number.

Aladinsaneuk · #14 Post by **Aladinsaneuk** » Mon Mar 11, 2013 6:56 am

you might not bg

but we share your number everywhere

BikerGran · #15 Post by **BikerGran** » Tue Mar 12, 2013 9:15 pm