The US Department of Homeland Security is advising everyone to disable JAVA on their computers. Due to a design flaw in the software coding it leaves an opening for criminals to take vital information from your computer including bank account information, credit card numbers, username and passwords to all the sites you visit, and a lot more. Whatever you have on the computer can be accessed by these hackers. It’s a widespread problem, and Homeland of Security is trying to put a warning out, so others do not become victims.
CNET's Topher Kessler writes:
"The malware has currently been seen attacking Windows, Linux and Unix systems, and while so far has not focused on OS X, may be able to do so given OS X is largely similar to Unix and Java is cross-platform.
Even though, the exploit has not been seen in OS X, Apple has taken steps to block it by issuing an update to its built-in protection system to block the current version of the Java 7 runtime and require users to install an as of yet unreleased version of the Java runtime.
Luckily with the latest versions of Java, users who need to keep it active can change a couple of settings to help secure their systems. Go to the Java Control Panel that is installed along with the runtime, and in the Security section uncheck the option to "Enable Java content in the browser," which will disable the browser plug-in. This will prevent the inadvertent execution of exploits that may be stumbled upon when browsing the Web, and is a recommended setting for most people to do. If you need to see a Java applet on the Web, then you can always temporarily re-enable the plug-in.
The second setting is to increase the security level of the Java runtime, which can also be done in the same Security section of the Java Control Panel. The default security level is Medium, but you can increase this to High or Very High. At the High level, Java will prompt you for approval before running any unsigned Java code, and at the Very High level all Java code will require such approval, regardless of whether or not it is signed."
Java is on every computer and cell phone, even the old flip phones. Java is used to watch video’s online and many people may not adhere to the advisory and may not take it serious. There will be many more sad victims of this threat, make sure you are not one of them and disable Java temporarily.
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