Apple now blocks older versions of Adobe's Flash player in Safari

Apple has tightened up security in its Safari Web browser following recent patches to Adobe's Flash technology. As part of an update that went out yesterday, OS X will now block older and thus vulnerable versions of Flash, forcing users to update to the latest version if they wish to view Flash-based content. In order to block older versions of the software, Apple is using its Xprotect malware scanner, which is built into Mac OS X and can spot and quarantine known malware. The move comes roughly a month after Apple began blocking older versions of Oracle-owned Java on OS X over security concerns. That issue proved to be a bit more complex, with Apple last week saying that it too was targeted as part of an organized hacking attempt that capitalized on Java vulnerabilities, but did not target the company's customers. Earlier this week Adobe pushed out a software update that patched three vulnerabilities in Flash, two of which it said were designed to target Mozilla's Firefox browser.