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Friday, January 11, 2013

Homeland Security Warns To Disable Java Amid Zero-Day Flaw

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has warned users to disable or uninstall Java software on their computers, amid continuing fears and an escalation in warnings from security experts that hundreds of millions of business and consumer users are vulnerable to a serious flaw.

Hackers have discovered a weakness in Java 7 security that could allow the installation of malicious software and malware on machines that could increase the chance of identity theft, or the unauthorized participation in a botnet that could bring down networks or be used to carry out denial-of-service attacks against Web sites.

"We are currently unaware of a practical solution to this problem," said the DHS' Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) in a post on its Web site on Thursday evening. "This vulnerability is being attacked in the wild, and is reported to be incorporated into exploit kits. Exploit code for this vulnerability is also publicly available."

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3 comments:

Bullard Construction said...

Well, why not just call Java and let them know what you found? I'm sure they would get right on a fix and update. After all, they really want to have happy customers.

We really do NOT need the government to step in and control the internet....

Anonymous said...

The DHS can kiss my arss.

Anonymous said...

And the DHS admits they do not know how to fix the problem! DUH!!!! Doesn't this tell us that maybe the inventors of JAVA might have a clue on fixing? Don't they want happy customers? Are they not motivated as other software suppliers have always been in the past to make sure they keep happy customers? Is there any incentive for the Government to help anyone who uses Java? Don't I already get current JAVA updates (I got one two days ago) frequently?

Folks, there is no "problem". There is an attempt from the government to control the internet and have power to shut it down if it deems it necessary!.

I an against this move, but when the SHTF, everyone will be off the internet, have no battery in their phone, and will have to depend on limited communication anyway, but until then, we should have free internet access without government intervention.