Adobe

The "biggest online shopping day" is now behind us. Cyber Monday certainly brings out the deals, but do people really take advantage of them? According to a couple of announcements it would seem that the answer to that is yes.

Both Adobe and Amazon are reporting record sales, with Adobe citing a number of $3 billion. That same number was reported this morning by CNN. Obviously these are not sales to Adobe, but it tracks the data in general. The company calculates $11 billion in total was spent between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday. It also claims that "out-of-stock" rates hit an all-time high.

My smartphone is my most-used computer. When it comes to getting work done, I chose an iPhone for its reliability, security, and most importantly, app availability. I do not have time for roadblocks, such as the app-gap found on Windows Phone.

To enhance my productivity on Windows, Linux and iOS, I leverage the wonderful Dropbox for my cloud-storage needs. The company is constantly improving its service and introducing new features. Today, the company announces a partnership with Adobe to enable easier PDF editing on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. This is just the latest example of Dropbox focusing on its customers.

Adobe today announced Audience Marketplace, a new data exchange in Adobe Audience Manager, the company’s data management platform (DMP).

Audience Marketplace is a private data marketplace that connects advertisers and content publishers to buy and sell second and third-party data faster and with more simplicity. The data exchange also enables companies to scale their high-value audience segments for personalized and targeted content across marketing channels.

After being hit by another malware attack this week, Adobe issued a batch of 69 patches for Flash, but also for its other products, including Reader and Acrobat.

This is yet another in Adobe’s many attempts to try and save its (in)famous product, that’s been like a punching bag for hackers lately, exposing many of the plugin’s vulnerabilities. However, the frequent patches and quick responses from Adobe don’t seem to be helping the plugin much, as both Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox have both blocked it.

Yesterday Adobe rolled out its monthly security patches, something all users should pay attention to given past history. Flash, Reader and Acrobat all received fixes, presumably remedying the current batch of problems plaguing the software. The problem is, nothing ever seems fixed in the world of Adobe.

To that end, a zero-day exploit has already been discovered by the folks at security firm Trend Micro. Yes, that didn't take long and Adobe didn't fix this one.

Adobe and Dropbox have announced a partnership, bringing stronger integration between the two products which will surely be beneficial for users on both sides.

The new partnership means people using Adobe products will be able to save files directly to their Dropbox folders, while those going into their cloud locker first will be able to edit PFF files directly in the cloud.

Adobe Flash and other programs can be a security problem. There's a reason the company releases regular updates. It's advisable to install them, as it likely means you're vulnerable if you don't. Perhaps the biggest offender is Flash, which powers many things on the web.

Now Adobe is quietly testing a beta version of Flash 19. It is currently a Labs project, but anyone can grab a copy if they'd like to try it out.

Adobe has had endless problems with security vulnerabilities. There seems to be another one all the time. So, it comes as no surprise when news of one is announced. Now is no different as yet another security bulletin has been posted.

This one is APSB15-19, which unsurprisingly allows for a remote user to take control of your system. This one affects all systems.

Flash might be a buggy program with multiple holes in its system. Flash might also be extremely vulnerable and a potential risk to millions of users out there.

But Flash should not be discarded, believes Cisco security veteran John Stewart, saying it might in fact be the lesser of two evils.

Vulnerability intelligence firm Secunia has released its second quarter 2015 country report for US and 14 other countries around the world. This looks at what programs users have installed and which are most at risk.

The big news is that a high percentage of users have unpatched versions of Adobe Reader. Adobe has the highest market share in this segment and PDF readers are a common target for hackers.

Adobe is not having a good time right now. Its Flash product has more security holes than Swiss cheese, making it a recurring target for hackers and bad guys. The tech world owes Steve Jobs an apology for poo-pooing his choice to disallow Flash from iOS. Things have gotten so bad, that Mozilla is blocking it by default as a major security risk.

Today, however, System76 takes it to another level. The Ubuntu Linux-loving computer seller has decided to stop pre-installing Flash on its machines. The decision to pre-install Adobe's software on its computers -- as a way to make Linux more friendly -- looked wise back in 2007, but has now proven to be a disservice to its customers. Is System76 right to do this?

As you may or may not know, Adobe Flash -- a veteran tool required by many modern browsers for video playback -- is riddled with vulnerabilities. The product has a long history of being thrown under the bus for its security incompetence. Such is the case today. Mozilla announces that it is blocking all versions of Flash Player in its browser with its latest update.

Mark Schmidt, the head of the Firefox team at Mozilla notes that the company is disabling Adobe Flash by default in the browser. The block is accompanied by an image showing a raised fist and the phrase "Occupy Flash". Users who wish to enable Flash can do so by flipping switches in the settings menu, however.

Earlier this week an exploit for Adobe Flash was revealed -- a shock, I know. Now a second is in the wild and already being used. Known by the catchy name CVE-2015-5122, security firm FireEye discovered the flaw buried in the Hacking Team leak and alerted Adobe to it.

Adobe has released a security bulletin stating "Critical vulnerabilities (CVE-2015-5122, CVE-2015-5123) have been identified in Adobe Flash Player 18.0.0.204 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh and Linux. Successful exploitation could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system".

Flash, a product that has only been in the press for bad reasons lately, is back in the news. For a similar reason, of course. Adobe has issued a security bulletin to notify its users about a vulnerability -- referred to as "the most beautiful Flash bug for the last four years" by hackers -- in all versions of its Flash product for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

The vulnerability, first spotted by security firm Trend Micro, is the aftermath of a mega security breach at Hacking Team. The infamous group that offered hacking services to spy agencies was hacked earlier this week, and most of its internal documents -- consisting of 400GB of emails, source code, client lists, invoices etc -- were made available to the public.

Adobe has carved out a niche for itself as a provider of industry-standard tools for art and design; Photoshop is now so widely used that, like Google, it has become a verb. The company's Creative Cloud suite receives its annual update today, and as part of the update Adobe is also launching its own stock image service.

Adobe Stock is set to compete directly with the likes of Shutterstock and Getty images. Adobe already has something of a captive market. It is very well aware that the people who tend to use stock images are the same people who use Adobe software -- it just makes sense for the two worlds to collide.