I use a 64-bit web browser which happily renders me immune to most web-borne threats. Wahoo! :}

"I use a 64-bit web browser which happily renders me immune to most web-borne threats"

There speaks someone who has the words "born victim: please mug me" stencilled on his forehead

True, but Java will be around for a long time. C# pretty much killed any mass market desktop for Java, and Flash pretty much killed it in web browsers, but it's big on servers, is used a lot in custom business apps and is now the default development language for Android. We have Java server systems in the field that are expected to be running well into the 2020s.

The main point is that you shouldn't have Java enabled in your browser unless you need it, just as you shouldn't have Flash enabled unless you need it. Any plugin introduces new security holes, so you should always disable any you don't need.

BOAC,

There's plenty of future for JAVA programmers in the Financial Sector.

Much more of a future than there is for people who program in the short-term trendy languages like Python, Ruby and all that nonsense.

C/C++ will always be the big daddy though, so that might be a good thing for Java programmers to learn if they want some diversity of skills.

Aye. The popular it becomes the more it is likely to be targeted by fraudsters etc, especially as more and more financial transactions are happening online than ever before.

I can imagine though that whilst most of these viruses and exploits are
'genuine', I could hazard a geuss that some of them are planted on purpose
by the very companies that are supposed to protect from it. No viruses and
no business and profit for these companies. But that is pure speculation on my part.

"But that is pure speculation on my part."

No, just pure paranoia. Though I've often wondered about how the Kasperskys learnt their trade behind the iron curtain, with a ban on exports of PCs to the Soviet bloc

I suspect like Mr Putin, they spent some time in alphabet city during their formative career years where easy access to otherwise verboten would be par for the course. :cool: