The digital certificate for Internet Explorer's Java 2 Runtime Environment has expired, while several more are set to lapse January 7. Digital certificates from vendors like VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) let online users verify that they're dealing with real companies or persons. They also can secure all communications to and from the Web server where they're installed, via public key encryption. Depending on who you ask, the discovery is an oversight that will cause only a minor inconvenience to IE users, or a signal that Microsoft has all but ceased browser development efforts and pays little attention to security details. Microsoft's expired certificate for Java 2 treasury bonds marketing mix Runtime Environment won't be renewed. According to a spokesperson at Microsoft's PR firm, as part of Microsoft's settlement with Sun Microsystems in Jan 2001, it is no longer allowed to distribute certain versions of the Microsoft Virtual Machine as of Jan. 2, 2004. Also as part of the agreement, Microsoft has been phasing out the Virtual Machine from all of its products; it's allowed to continue releasing security fixes for the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine until Sept. 30, 2004. (In all, Microsoft has stopped downloads of 23 products, and is re-releasing another seven without the Virtual Machine.) The other rapidly aging certificates relate to secure e-mail, income taxes marketing mix code signing, client authentication and server authentication. Joe Wilcox, a senior analyst for Jupiter Research (owned by the same parent as this Web site), exposed the problem in his Microsoft Monitor blog. He worries that the expiring certificates are a sign that neither IE development, nor security, is a priority at Microsoft. "Just because (Microsoft) won the browser wars doesn't mean (it) should stop innovation in the browser market," Wilcox said. "There's a real customer benefit to it, and because Microsoft integrated it into the operating system, there's an onus on the company to put more punch into its development effort." But there's another issue that Wilcox marketing plans marketing mix thinks is just as serious. Call it pop-up fatigue. "There's already a problem with consumers being assailed with pop-ups of all kinds," Wilcox said. "Now, we have yet another because of expiring certificates. It numbs consumers and creates the opportunity for them to make mistakes with pop-ups." It's all too easy for people to start automatically click those 'okay' buttons, he said, even in a secure transaction setting. Taken together, it shows that Microsoft isn't as avid about security as it says it is, Wilcox said. "Microsoft talks about taking a more serious approach," he said. "But sometimes in security it's the little details that get marketing mix marketing mix you. This may seem