FOX News Channel Streaming Security

[User101]

I want to get FOX News Channel streaming on my PC. When I select that, I get an Adobe Flash warning that FOX Newsplayer wants to store data on my pc (see attachment Info-01). I don’t allow it and instead try selecting Watch Live and a particular show, It then asks for my cable provider. It flashes up a screen asking for my userid and password, but before I can do anything the screen is gone and I get a second warning about unsecured transmission of userid/password (see attachment Info-02).

Is the Adobe Flash warning a concern of what FOX newsplayer could store on my machine (virus, malware et al)? Is the second warning about unsecured transfer of userid/password a legitimate threat that they could be intercepted? Or is that just another Windows meaningless warning.

Thank you for your help. If either is a security concern I would forgo FOX News Channel streaming rather than expose my pc’s security.

W7 Version 6.1;

[jmarket]

Welcome to PCHF User101

That is a perfectly normal thing to see on a lot of streaming websites. The unsecure transmission warning is based on the fact that the video is not streaming via HTTPS, the secure protocol for HTTP. It’s not in any way a warning of malware, viruses, etc.

The storage for Flash is normal too. Flash stores what’s called “Flash cookies”, which store things like date, time, and settings. You can safely store this data, or you can safely ignore it. Either way it will have no impact on streaming

From what I can tell, FOX News requires a TV provider subscription to FOX News Go to access live streaming, hence why it asks for your TV provider.

On a sidenote, Adobe is starting the process of doing away with Flash Player.

[User101]

Thanks jmarket for your quick response. I understand about Flash player cookies not being a problem. Just to be sure that I understand correctly: the warning about unsecured sending of the cable provider userid & password is not a risk of its being hijacked?

[User101]

The forum locked me out of finishing the above post. I wanted to ask what sites such as FOX will use instead of Adobe Flash?

[jmarket]

Most of the time, it’s the video itself that’s being served unsecured, not the credentials.

They’ll use HTML5 instead of Flash it would seem.

[User101]

Thanks again, jmarket.

[jmarket]

My pleasure

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