On January 10th, 2013, the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) released a bulletin regarding security issues with Java. One of the recommendations in this bulletin is to disable Java in web browsers. In many cases, this will prevent running PhET simulations directly from the PhET web site and from a local installation.

If you are a user of PhET simulations, are currently running Java 7 and want to use PhET simulations directly from the web site, we recommend that you take the following steps:

• Upgrade to the latest version of Java.
• Disable Java from running in web browsers. Note that this will prevent the "Run Now" option from launching simulations from the PhET site. This article has information about how to perform this operation.
• Run the simulations by downloading them via the "Download" button, and then running locally.

If you are using PhET from a local installation, disabling Java in the web browser may block simulations from launching. You will need to work with your IT department to determine whether Java in the browser can safely remain enabled. Note that setting the security level to "High" in the Java console will cause users to be prompted before Java applications and applets are run, which may be a sufficient level of security for your needs.

PhET will continue to monitor the situation surrounding Java security issues and will update this notice when the problems are fully resolved.

If you have questions or concerns regarding this, please contact us at [email protected].

Thank you for using and supporting PhET Interactive Simulations!