Have you read or heard about the government recommending to disable Java?
Are you concerned about these warnings?
Or are you wondering if the warnings apply to you?
If you answered "No" to any of the questions above then please wake up, be concerned and do what needs to be done.
A wee bit of background information: Java is a programming language that makes programs largely computer independent. That means any program written in Java should run an any given computer.
The number of viruses written in Java has recently exploded. And some
very nasty viruses are among these newcomers.
The software system that has to be installed on your computer to make Java "work" has found to be faulty; thus it endangers most computers.
On ALL my customer's computers Java is installed since it is required for some web sites and here especially for some web sites with games.
Java has to be turned OFF in all web browsers now!
If a web page requires Java you better stay away from this web site, especially sites with any kind of games! Well, if it is a web site from a company, college or public administration that you have good reason to trust then you can enable Java in Firefox (or Google Chrome) and only for this web site.
You can follow the
instructions in this
article to easily disable any Java programs (called Java applets) running
in Firefox or Google Chrome.
If you want to avoid Java running in any other web browser and if you have
diligently kept Java up-to-date you can follow the instructions in the first
three paragraphs of this article. "Diligently kept up-to-date" means you have Java version 7 Update 17 installed (per March 4th 2013).
Some related background information is in this article.
Update 1/21/2013: here a quote from The Register:
Separately Trend Micro warned
earlier this week that the latest Java security update may be
incomplete. The update attempts to address two security bugs but fails
to quash one of these completely.
The security firm advises users to avoid Java where possible,
particularly as a plugin to their browsers, where the main danger
arises. Users obliged to use Java, perhaps on the small percentage of
sites which require it or for work-related reasons, can minimize their
exposure by disabling Java on their main day-to-day browser and using a
secondary browser with an enabled Java plugin solely for those sites.
This tactic for minimizing exposure to Java-based attacks is advocated
by many security firms.
As usual I welcome comments and suggestions right here in the blog. Thank you in advance.
