Is Your Personal Identity Data Protected?

Recent problems in Java technology has prompted the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (a division of Homeland Security) to post an emergency alert recommending that ALL users of ALL browsers in ALL operating systems simply disable java permanently due to Oracle's (Java developer) inability to secure the application from massive security flaws.

Oracle released a patch for the latest problems on Sunday, January 13, but USCERT states that even the latest Java patch is not enough to protect your personal identity data from being stolen from your computer, regardless of operating system or web browser.  For example, if you access your bank account, retirement account, etc. from a computer with Java enabled, the Java plug-in may open the door to allow access to all of your information. Consequently, the governments recommendation is to disable the Java plugin in all browsers on your computer. This will prevent any malicious code that may be lurking on a hacked website from loading on your computer through Java.

If you would like to see the Homeland Security alert in more detail, you can see it online here.  For those interested, there is also a very informative article on Forbes that explains things very well.