The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is urging computer users to disable their Java software because of a major flaw that could allow hackers to take over the machines. The alert adds to security experts' warnings to hundreds of millions of consumers and businesses that use it to surf the Web.

You can find the Homeland Security alert here:

http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA13-010A.html

And here’s a link to Oracle Corp. instructions on how to disable Java.

http://java.com/en/download/help/disable_browser.xml

If you’d like to read more, click here for a wider look at the problem.