OIRA and Flash Player

Okay, I did not complain for over a year about the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs becoming a shill for Adobe Flash Player. When you logged on to the OIRA web page you were forced to click through three times (I always ‘x’ed out) of a pop-up box before you could access any more of the site. That pop-up read: “You need Adobe Flash Player 8 (or above) to view the charts. It is a free and lightweight installation from Adobe.com. Please click on Ok to install the same.”

But, now I am complaining; last week OIRA/AdobeShill went too far. They took out the ‘x out’ option. Now you have to either click “Okay” or “Cancel” three times to get to work on the site. What is next? Will they take away the “Cancel” button as well? Just to look at some meaningless charts?

Now I know that a bunch of web sites (way too many) still use Flash Player for video presentations. I still have the program on my computer, but my browsers are set to only use it when I give specific (and VERY infrequent) authorization. And I hold my breath every time that I am forced to use it; the program just has too many vulnerabilities.

Please, DHS, if you are serious about the security of government computer systems, please tell every agency (and OIRA in particular) the Flash Player is not a secure program and that they are putting people at risk by requiring them to use it. Oh, and while you are at it, let’s talk about .PDF documents….