I don't know how often you need to connect to your online bank : I do it once per week or so... You could boot a Live Linux CD / DVD / memory stick. Either a

I don't know how often you need to connect to your online bank : I do it once per week or so... You could boot a Live Linux CD / DVD / memory stick. Either a Live Linux CD / DVD which already has Java or add it yourself to the Live CD or keep the Java install file on a memory stick. Java can be installed without being root on Linux, which is great and the installation process, once you have the install file, is very very fast (a few seconds). You could then connect to your bank's website (and only to that one) and be quite safe. Of course it's not for the faint of hearth... But that way you don't need to trust their code to behave well: you're basically booting a read-only Live CD with zero information about you on it. And you don't have to fear Java applets exploits from other sites (because you use that Live CD to go only to your bank's website). I access my online bank from a Live Linux distro (Java applets aren't needed here but the principle is the same: by booting from a "read-only OS" and which I use only for online banking, the risk of being pirated are pretty small).