Ok, so it seems obvious that the previous posters are unfamiliar with languages outside of C/C++ and Perl. The reason why other languages are better for security is because most other languages are type safe. Java is type safe, so is Perl, LISP, ML, and most other `modern' languages. Why is type safety important? Because in a language with a sound type system buffer overflows are IMPOSSIBLE. This is not just belly aching from a LISP weenie, this is an important result from type theory and programming language semantics. A well-typed program for a soundly typed language cannot cause buffer overflows or ANY memory violations. So if you write your email client in LISP or Java, it will be impossible to find any of the vulnerabilities that rely upon overwriting hunks of memory with improperly handled input.

On the issue of speed, that too is less of an issue. As long as you're not doing GUI stuff Java is pretty zippy (and if you use something like SWT the GUI can be fast too). Also other languages, such as LISP, can be compiled to machine language and can be made quite fast. LISP compliation has been around for almost 30 years, and a good LISP compiler can emit code to compete with C. Likewise highly optimizing Java compilers are emerging and in several cases have been shown to perform within 5-10% of equivalent C code.

Higher level languages are good things. C is a wonderful language and is good for implementations where low-level detail is important. But C has its limitations, the current big one is that it is all to easy to write insecure C code. Expand your horizons, learn a new programming language.

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