No company or web service is probably as painfully aware of the need to keep data safe and private than the likes of Facebook, who holds a virtual copy of a good portion of their users' lives in their hands. Facebook is now sharing part of that knowledge by releasing Conceal, a set of Java APIs that will help other app developers keep their own users' data secure.
Earlier this month, it surfaced that Bitcoin wallets based on Android were vulnerable to being robbed, something Bitcoin.org warned users about in a security advisory. In the advisory, the organization stated that the problem originated from a security issue regarding the randomly-generated secure numbers, and it was the fault of Android, meaning a wallet created with any app was vulnerable. Google has acknowledged this problem, explaining the cause in a write up over on the Android blogspot.
Google's 2013 developer conference this year didn't give immediate attention to Glass, at least not at its one and only keynote address - but behind the scenes, development ran deep. Speaking together at a developer chat session centered on "Building Glassware" with what the company calls its Google Mirror API, Jenny Murphy and Alain Vongsouvanh made the case for the future.
Jagex, the developers of the infamous web-browser MMORPG RuneScape, has decided that it's time to put Java away and welcome in HTML5. The game developer knew that in order for the next sequel of RuneScape, RuneScape 3, to be successful, it needed to transition into a new engine. It considered Adobe Flash, but Flash didn't enough power to run the game, and it thought of Microsoft Silverlight, but Silverlight is limited only to Internet Explorer.
Another day, another Java security alert. In this case, Oracle has released Security Alert CVE-2013-1493, which highlights two vulnerabilities that are particular to Java in browsers. The patch for these issues was originally slated for release in April as part of Oracle's Critical Patch Update for Java SE. Because the vulnerabilities are being exploited in the wild, however, the company has elected to push out the updates now.
The Java zero-day exploit has been making the rounds lately, hitting both Facebook and Apple just recently. However, it doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon. A newly discovered zero-day vulnerability in the most recent versions of Java 6 and Java 7 has been discovered, and it allows attackers to install malicious software on vulnerable PCs, specifically a new "McRat" trojan.
Apple has pushed out a new Java update to address the malware loophole that saw hackers attempt to extract data from the company, stripping out the Apple-provided browser plugin in the process. The update, which follows Apple's confirmation that a "small number" of its systems had been compromised by an unknown hacking group, basically removes the Java applet plugin from all browsers on an OS X 10.7+ machine.
![Apple targeted by Java zero-day bug [UPDATE]](https://www.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/imac-2012-22-SlashGear-580x412.jpeg)
Last week, Facebook was attacked by a zero-day Java exploit. While the social network said that no personal data was stolen, it's never too comforting when companies and services get hacked. This week, however, Apple was the target this time around, saying that a "small number" Mac computers have been infected.
It's never good when you have to make an official report to the public about a hacker attack your multi-billion dollar social network has had. That's what's happened this week as Facebook's Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan lets it be known that several engineers on staff with Facebook had been the subject of a zero-day Java exploit. The good news is that no customer data was exposed (that's your stuff), the bad news is that Facebook wasn't the only company targeted by this attack.
Oracle has rolled out its February 2013 Critical Patch Update for Java SE, which addresses dozens of security vulnerabilities. The patch was originally slated for release on February 19, but because of an active exploitation problem that was targeting Java in browsers, the company elected to roll it out early.
You've likely already heard of the Java security scandal, which was something Oracle looked to fix quickly with an update to the software. Even though Oracle says it has patched the issue, some entities disagree. The latest to add its name to the list of dissenters seems to be Apple, as it has decided to block the Java 7 browser plug-in, even after the update was delivered by Oracle.
Welcome to Tuesday evening, everyone. The afternoon started off with something of a bang with Facebook's big event, during which the company revealed the service's new Graph Search and explained the difference between the new feature and traditional web search. It also announced that it was partnering with Bing for search results in Graph Search, while we used the latest installment of SlashGear 101 to give you all of the details about this new feature.