ZDNet reports that the South Africa Revenue service has created its own browser to continue using the Adobe Flash Player on the existing site, taking some web forms from Flash to HTML.
Let me remind you that Flash Player support was finally discontinued on December 31, 2020. In addition, a unique mechanism for self-destruction was built into the software code in advance, and starting from January 12, 2021, Adobe forcibly blocks the launch of any Flash content.
The plan of the Adobe developers worked exactly as it was supposed. On January 12, the South African tax service began to experience problems: the department stopped receiving tax returns through its website, as the download forms were Flash widgets.
Instead of abandoning Flash and switching to HTML or JS, the South African authorities took a non-trivial step. The fact is that this week the Revenue office introduced its own browser, SARS eFiling Browser, a stripped-down version of Chromium with two main functions. Thus, the browser re-enables Flash support and gives users access to the SARS eFiling website. Fortunately, the browser only allows access to the official website of the Revenue service, which slightly reduces the potential risks for its users.
At the same time, SARS eFiling Browser is available only for Windows. That is, macOS, Linux, and mobile OS users still cannot submit tax return files.
Also, as I reported, the discontinuation of Flash support and operation came as a surprise to the staff of the railway system in China’s Liaoning province.
Apple Daily reports that China Railway Shenyang’s railway software is based on Flash, and after the technology shutdown on January 12, employees lost control of the entire system.
According to ArsTechnica, the problem was solved only the next day, by installing an old version of Flash and blocking updates.
