Given the recent hacks at Apple, Facebook, and Twitter, it's time for drastic action: removing or disabling Java on your Mac. Rich Mogull explains why and how.

Whether to keep Java (technically the JRE, Java Runtime Environment) or not, is debatable. Certainly if you don’t use it, the Defensive Computing thing is to remove it.

Microsoft will include the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) in its next Windows XP service pack due later this year but will remove it after the end of next year.