Charani- I would agree that all of the things you mentioned are important but when the Dept. of Homeland Security takes the times to tell everyone to DISABLE JAVA in their Web browsers and continues to state there are serious vulnerabilities in JAVA even after all of the updates and when my Firefox 19 disabled JAVA just a few days ago in the update (I had already had it disabled prior to the update but those who did not have reported that the update made disable the default), I have to feel that JAVA is vulnerable no matter how much Oracle attempts to patch it. Like others have said I don't recommend REMOVING JAVA and it is safe to use locally on your computer, but I wouldn't trust any Web application that uses it. The hackers are more aware than ever of the vulnerabilities and are sure to be exploiting them in any Web-based use of JAVA they can find. Flash (not overly secure itself but better than JAVA) and HTML5 would be more secure alternatives. As for the Open Office Help problem...is this houses ON your computer or is it accessed via a browser? If it is local it would be safe to use --- and disabling in the browsers wouldn't stop anyone from using it locally. Also, if it is disabled in a browser and you ABSOLUTELY trust the site using it...then temporarily turn it on. Joan In a message dated 2/25/2013 8:47:01 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, charani.b@gmail.com writes: But is it *really* that vulnerable? Or are there other things, such as poor security, involved as well? My guess is there are other factors involved as well.

I upgraded my Firefox to 19, but it did not disable my Java add-on. In any event, I don't see this as relevant to managing my lists. List subscribers should not be turning to a list administrator as the go-to person to advise on computer security issues. Drew Smith On Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 10:02 AM, <JYoung6180@aol.com> wrote: > I would agree that all of the things you mentioned are important but when > the Dept. of Homeland Security takes the times to tell everyone to DISABLE > JAVA in their Web browsers and continues to state there are serious > vulnerabilities in JAVA even after all of the updates and when my Firefox 19 > disabled JAVA just a few days ago in the update (I had already had it disabled > prior to the update but those who did not have reported that the update made > disable the default), I have to feel that JAVA is vulnerable no matter how > much Oracle attempts to patch it.