Mozilla says Flash is too dangerous to run automatically in Firefox

For Flash, the writing may finally be on the wall. Mozilla has blocked Flash on its popular Firefox browser. A message now appears saying that Flash -- the plug-in that enables animation, browser games, and other graphics online -- is vulnerable, along with a message that Mozilla reserves the right to block software that "seriously compromises Firefox security."

The ban is temporary -- it will stay in place as long as there's a version of Flash with publicly known security problems, Mozilla said. (Adobe is working on a fix.) If users really want to run Flash to view videos or use other Flash-based Web tools, they can do so -- as long as they read a security warning from Mozilla first. But Mozilla is also advocating for a general end to using Flash as a Web standard. Facebook's chief information security officer, Alex Stamos, also said that he wants Adobe to set a deadline to kill Flash once and for all, so that developers will move quickly off the old standard.