I keep waiting for the day when Adobe Flash is a thing of the past. Unfortunately, there are a lot, and I mean a lot, of older sites out there that use it. So, if you find yourself having to use it, at least add a layer of protection where it will prompt you as to whether or not it will run.
Old Goat Guide recently posted “Using Adobe Flash Player Responsibly” that gives instructions on how to set Internet Explorer so that you have to click to run Flash. Thankfully, Firefox now has this setting as the default, although it is called “Ask to activate”. If you are running Chrome, I suggest using the built-in PepperFlash (also available for Chromium, usually as a separate download), as I have found it more stable and less of a target for hackers.