Govts, companies take websites offline over PHP vulnerabilities

Numerous government, educational, and medical websites spanning across Europe and other regions were rendered inaccessible on Wednesday as organizations scrambled to safeguard themselves against two severe security flaws in PHP, a programming language that forms the backbone of the internet. Cybersecurity authorities worldwide cautioned that entities unable to implement the necessary patches promptly should contemplate taking the affected sites offline.

PHP's developers released a suite of updates designed to address two previously identified critical vulnerabilities. Among the sites taken offline or otherwise impacted were several major organizations:

In Germany, the federal IT service provider ITZBund announced that several of its websites had been taken offline due to the discovery of PHP vulnerabilities. The ministry spokesperson clarified that the temporary deactivation was a precautionary measure and no security breaches had been reported. Meanwhile, France's Interior Ministry stated that it had temporarily removed the websites of local government administrative offices, known as prefectures, while awaiting a security fix for the PHP programming language.