First Java Zero-Day Attack in Two Years Targets NATO and US Defense Organizations
I wish to God that Oracle would simply deprecate and discontinue browser-side Java applet support.<p>Whenever people see a headline like "Java Vulnerability Found!", it is virtually always referring to the client-side applet plugin.  Yet 99% of readers don't understand that, and think that Java is insecure in general.<p>Whenever people see snark about Java installing the "Ask.com Toolbar", it is referring to the client-side JRE installer (i.e. applet plugin).  That's virtually irrelevant to developers, because we install the full SDK which contains no crapware and never has.  Yet 99% of readers don't understand that, and think that being a Java developer means dodging malware with every upgrade.<p>Java applets are basically the non-Microsoft business world's answer to ActiveX.  A dead 1990's technology that no one has cared about in 15 years or more, which only still exists to support backwards-compatibility for some horrible crusty shops still running on XP or even NT/2000.  No contemporary Java developer gives a <i></i><i>fuck</i><i></i> about applets, and by "contemporary" I mean "any greenfield development done since 9/11".  However, we're all sick to death of having to defend our ecosystem against constant FUD, due to this horrible piece of obsolete legacy cruft.<p>Just kill it.  Seriously.