The recently discovered Java vulnerability disclosed last week has been finally patched by Oracle, but exploitation continues on computers that have not been updated.

Included in the world’s most frequently used exploit packs such as BlackHole, Nuclear Pack and the Cool Exploit Kit, exploitation code can result in cyber-criminals taking advantage of the huge pool of vulnerable computers by planting ransomware.

Bitdefender says it has identified multiple campaigns that use the CVE-2013-0422 bug in Java to infect client machines with the notorious IcePol (also known as Reveton) however.

But the company warns that once the computer is successfully infected, the user is denied access to the desktop until payment of a ransom, which the criminals call a ‘fine’.

Most of these attacks are directed from servers in the UK, Canada and the US but this doesn’t mean that computers are safe Down Under according to the antivirus provider.

The Reveton ransomware has localised in multiple languages using IP addresses of the infected computers, and victims are spreading across the world, with a vulnerable version of Java enough to fall victim.

To stay safe, Bitdefender recommends consumers patch their Java distribution immediately to Update 11, while also suggesting users disable the Java plugin in the browser they are using for web-related tasks and only enable it in an alternative browser to be used for tasks requiring Java.

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