Websites taken offline across UK & Europe as ‘critical’ security flaw hits dozens of government sites

Government websites across the UK and Europe were taken offline on Wednesday, October 21 due to a critical security flaw affecting dozens of online platforms. Edinburgh and Oxford Council, The Traitors' website, and the Met Police website were among those impacted. Down Detector reported that online gaming platform Steam, Google Drive, and WordPress were also down, along with local authority websites from Bristol, Lambeth, and Barnet.

Finland temporarily shut down its public web services, while the Netherlands' cyber-security agency took its website offline due to the vulnerabilities.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) had previously advised UK organizations to prepare for emergency software updates worldwide, as fears grew that hackers could exploit the weaknesses to infiltrate systems. Fixes were expected to be released at 3pm BST on Wednesday, but could arrive earlier. The NCSC warned that if immediate remediation was not possible, organizations should consider taking their systems offline until the issue could be fully mitigated.

PHP, a software that works behind the scenes to keep websites running, including those built using popular platforms like WordPress, was affected by the flaws. European cyber officials cautioned that the weaknesses could enable hackers to execute their own commands on vulnerable systems without needing to log in. Full details of the vulnerabilities and which versions are impacted have not yet been released, leaving some website owners uncertain about how to proceed while protection measures are put in place.