Java must be improving -- only 42 security holes patched this round
Allow me to begin with an emphatic statement: if you have Java on your computer then get it off now! Oracle released its latest round of security patches for the incredibly buggy, and surprisingly still popular, platform, with numerous new holes waiting to either be patched or exploited.
When word came down of the latest fixes and I mentioned it in the BetaNews newsroom, our president Scott Alperin could utter only "seems like time to put PC-side Java out of its misery". Indeed.
According to the Oracle announcement "this Critical Patch Update contains 42 new security fixes across Java SE products of which 2 are applicable to server deployments of Java". The company continues to explain "39 of these vulnerabilities may be remotely exploitable without authentication". 42, that is all. Thankfully it is not 43, or 50. Perhaps next month.