article on java in infosecurity mag

["R. DuFresne" <dufresne () sysinfo com>]

Howdy,

Have othere here seen and read the recent article in information security
magazine;

http://www.infosecuritymag.com/articles/june01/columns_curmudgoens_corner.shtml

The gist of the article boils down to these statments:

Hostile Java applets are a perfect example of an over-hyped security
threat that has no basis in reality. For years, we've been warned
about crackers and unethical Web-site operators surreptitiously placing evil
Java code on Web servers. The hostile applets would secretly steal or sabotage 
data on the PC of any visiting user. But after six years of warnings, such 
exploits have never materialized.

Hostile applet attacks remain theoretical for two reasons. First, what few Java
vulnerabilities have appeared have been fiendishly hard to exploit. And second, 
such an attack would provide little benefit to attackers--e-mail is a much more 
efficient mechanism for spreading hostile code. To put the situation into 
perspective, more computer damage is caused by fire and weather than
by Web-based hostile Java applets. Even insects cause more damage than Java,
so why aren't those bugs front-page news, too?

The FUD surrounding Java is a lesson in the perils of believing everything 
you hear.  To understand why this non-threat has assumed such epic proportions,
you have to go back to 1995.
</quote>

Are folks in the industry changing their stances on the security
implcations of java these days?

Thanks,


Ron DuFresne
-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
        admin & senior consultant:  darkstar.sysinfo.com
                  http://darkstar.sysinfo.com

"Cutting the space budget really restores my faith in humanity.  It
eliminates dreams, goals, and ideals and lets us get straight to the
business of hate, debauchery, and self-annihilation."
                -- Johnny Hart

testing, only testing, and damn good at it too!




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