We may be diligent about updating our computers… then again not. Java has still not been fixed and more malware has been popping up using Java security exploits. Mostly it’s PCs but hey MACs and Facebook are also involved.
According to new research out, The Register, Mar 26, 2013, reported
“The overwhelming majority (94 per cent) of PCs and other endpoints running Java software and surveyed by Websense are vulnerable to at least one Java runtime exploit, according to the web security biz. And the exploitable bugs are not just zero-day holes and recently patched vulnerabilities that get all the publicity.
Three in four computers used to browse the web are using a Java Runtime Environment version that is more than six months out of date. More than 50 per cent of machines are two years behind.”
NakedSecurity.sophos.com reported “…earlier this year we saw more than 600,000 Macs infected by the Flashback malware because of a Java security flaw.”
The best way to protect your computer against harmful Java flaws is to disable JAVA in your web browser. Even the US Goverment’s Computer Emergency Readiness Team has alerted people to not use Java if at all possible. If you find that your program needs Java, you can simply reinstall it with caution. Mostly you won’t.
Now Java is NOT the same as Javascript. One web person put it this way. “Java is to Javascript what a car is to carpet. Total unrelated.” You need javascript to interact with the internet and with most things on it. So Javascript stays!
So how do you do disable Java? Here are some links below from Naked Security’s Chet Wisnewski with instructions on how to disable Java. It depends on your browser. If you have more that one browser, do it to all of them.