The browser's status bar will show an "applet not initialized" message, and the Java console will tell you that a javax.net.ssl.SSLException is thrown. This may be caused by a bug known to Apple - the Java implementation has trouble with certain SSL certificates. Until Apple fixes this problem, they suggest a fairly simple workaround (unfortunately, you will need a Windows version of Internet Explorer for this):
- Access the problematic site with Internet Explorer on Windows. Click on the padlock item and export the certificate to a file.
- Copy the certificate to your Mac.
- Use the command
sudo keytool -import -trustcacerts -keystore[space]
to import the certificate file to your keystore (substitute mycert.cer with the name of the file containing the certificate). Note that the above command is shown on two lines; replace [space] with an actual space character and enter the command as one line. The keystore is password protected - the default password is "changeit".
/Library/Java/Home/lib/security/cacerts -file mycert.cer
- Restart your browser and enjoy!

