For three times in two weeks, Adobe issued an emergency security update for Flash Player software to fix a hazardous zero-day vulnerability that hackers are already exploiting to launch drive-by installs.

Adobe Flash player used for playing media on many websites has left open various security holes for the hackers to exploit in the span of mere 2 weeks. Though it has released three emergency fixes, there has been enough exploitation of this security bug. The version 16.0.0.305 is the newest update released this month for Windows and Mac platforms to fix the version 16.0.0.296. To check what version you’re using click here, and if that’s not the latest one, immediately update it.

Well, there’s an even better way to avoid this problem until Adobe comes up with a better and more secure version of Flash Player and that is to disable it on your web browsers, but there are some website developers who still use flash to run their media. So, if you want to still use Flash, but minimize how frequently it is used, you can set your browser in such a way that Flash content will play only when you want it. And when you’ll do this, there will be a prompt every time Flash is needed: “Click to run Adobe Flash Player.” This is much safer than always allowing Flash to play.

Here’s how to block Adobe Flash Player on your browser:

• Internet Explorer : Open “tools” menu, and click on “safety”. Then click on “ActiveX Filtering” to enable it. Since ActiveX Filtering is enabled, Flash will be blocked on sites you open as it is implemented on ActiveX Control.
• Google Chrome : Go to “Settings” and click on “Show Advanced Settings.” Click the button for “Content settings…” Scroll down to the “plug-ins” section, and enable “click to play” by clicking on the radio button right next to it.
• Mozilla Firefox : Type “about:config” in the address bar. The browser will warn you about voiding the warranty, ignore it and a window will open with a search bar at the top. Search for “plugins.click_to_play” and then double click on it, so that the “value” column changes to “true”