Government websites go dark as software flaw sparks security scramble

Government websites across Europe and other regions experienced temporary outages on Wednesday due to the revelation of critical vulnerabilities in the widely used PHP programming language. PHP powers a significant portion of the internet, including WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and Magento sites, as well as shared hosting platforms and control panels.

Developers identified two critical flaws on Tuesday, urging users to update their sites promptly. However, some government agencies, including those in the Netherlands and Finland, went offline as a precautionary measure ahead of the fix, as hackers were reportedly exploiting the vulnerabilities. Cybersecurity experts cautioned that the widespread use of PHP could leave millions of servers susceptible to attacks, with AI-assisted hacking campaigns potentially exacerbating the threat.

Small websites, in particular, are at higher risk due to limited technical resources. Dutch organizations such as the Port of Rotterdam, government portal Overheid.nl, and five major political parties' websites were among those that went offline. Finland's state IT services provider also temporarily shut down public network services.