Oracle Settles FTC Charges That It Left Its Customers Open to Hacking

Oracle has settled allegations by the Federal Trade Commission that it failed to notify customers about unaddressed hacking dangers when it released security updates for the estimated 850 million US computers with Java SE software, the agency said on Monday.

The FTC alleged that Oracle promised consumers that its updates would make the software "safe and secure." In fact, the agency said, the updates removed some of the problematic software but left behind older versions of Java which were vulnerable to being hacked.

Oracle, which acquired Java in 2010 when it bought Sun Microsystems, Inc, declined comment on the settlement.

Under the terms of the settlement, Oracle is required to notify customers on Twitter or Facebook on how to remove the older software and to assist those who are updating their Java software remove older versions.

Oracle last week reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by strong sales from its cloud services.

Oracle, like other established tech companies, has been moving its business to the cloud-based model, essentially providing services remotely via data centres rather than selling installed software.

Revenue from company's cloud-computing software and platform service rose 34 percent to $484 million (roughly Rs. 3,208 crores) in the second quarter ended Nov. 30.

Total revenue fell 6.3 percent to $8.99 billion (roughly Rs. 59,601 crores), missing analysts average estimate of $9.06 billion (roughly Rs. 60,065 crores), according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Oracle's net income fell to $2.2 billion (roughly Rs. 14,585 crores), or 51 cents per share, from $2.5 billion (roughly Rs. 16,574 crores), or 56 cents per share, a year earlier.

© Thomson Reuters 2015