Advisory: Spend a few minutes to disable JAVA in your browsers NOW

There is a serious  advisory of a potential issue with Java that may affect computer users. The advisory is issued by the The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT).

 At a minimum you should spend a few minutesto take these steps: (sourced from http://java.com/en/download/help/disable_browser.xml)

Chrome

1. Click on the Chrome menu, and then select Settings.
2. At the bottom of Settings window, click Show advanced settings
3. Scroll down to the Privacy section and click on Content Settings.
4. In the Content Settings panel, scroll down to the Plug-ins section.
5. Under the Plug-ins section, click Disable individual plug-ins.
6. In the Plugins panel, scroll to the Java section. Click Disable to disable the Java Plug-in.
7. Close and restart the browser to enable the changes.

Note: Alternatively, you can access the Plug-ins settings by typing about:plugins in the browser address bar.

Firefox

1. Click on the Firefox tab and then select Add-ons
2. In the Add-ons Manager window, select Plugins
3. Click Java (TM) Platform plugin to select it
4. Click Disable (if the button displays Enable then Java is already disabled)

Safari

1. Choose Safari Preferences
2. Choose the Security option
3. Deselect Enable Java
4. Close Safari Preferences window

There are steps for Internet Explorer on the same JAVA  page using the JAva Control panel. Advanced users can also check these instructions http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/how-to-disable-java-internet-explorer/

Hope this is helpful.