How secure can Java technology be configured to be? There might also
require consideration of how dependent this is on the security of the
underlying operating system and so how much care it is worth taking to
select a secure
operating system to take full advantage of Java's security.

Background from my point of view:
There are claims that Java is the most secure, general-purpose
computing platform that there has ever been. Clearly any technology can be
insecure if not configured properly. But the claims imply that, if
properly configured, Java can be extremely secure. Clearly, the Java
language provides a variety of in-built features which are much more
secure that most other languages; this seems to be necessary but not
sufficient. On top of that there is the, Permission based, security
model which provides much more can be extended. But how secure is it?