A zero day exploit is being used in Java by various toolkits such as the blackhole exploit kit. These can be used to distribute ransomware and if you are not familiar with ransomware, it is a very troubling form of virus.

Basically if infected, you will receive a message on your screen (supposedly from the police or FBI) and it will ask for payment of a certain amount. If payment is not made it threatens to lock all data on your computer.  Unfortunately we have seen this happen, even on secure systems with excellent firewalling.

We reccommend that you update your Java immediately to the latest version. Also consider if you need Java on your system. If you do, you can turn off Java in the web browser. To do this, open Java from the Control Panel and click on the Security tab. You can then uncheck the “Enable Java content in the browser”. See the screenshot below.

So to avoid ransomware, keep Java up-to-date. This is very important. You should also run a regular anti-virus scan, keep your Windows up-to-date and use a firewall.