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07/27/2017: Farewell, Flash
Jul 27, 2017

07/27/2017: Farewell, Flash

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The practice of getting a virus onto someone's machine or network, locking up the data, and demanding a payment for the key has become popular and lucrative in a short period of time. The result: $25 million in paid ransom over two years. On today's show, we'll look at the "business model" behind this form of malicious hacking. Afterwards, we say our parting words to Adobe Flash amid news that the company is going to stop producing new versions. 

Segments From this episode

Goodbye, Flash

Jul 27, 2017
Adobe will phase out the browser plugin by 2020.
 A window on the Mozilla Firefox browser shows the browser has blocked the Adobe Flash plugin. 
Sean Gallup/Getty Images

The practice of getting a virus onto someone’s machine or network, locking up the data, and demanding a payment for the key has become popular and lucrative in a short period of time. The result: $25 million in paid ransom over two years. On today’s show, we’ll look at the “business model” behind this form of malicious hacking. Afterwards, we say our parting words to Adobe Flash amid news that the company is going to stop producing new versions. 

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