{
  "id": 15918483,
  "title": "What is PHP and why did it take government websites offline?",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/21/what-is-php-and-why-did-it-take-government-websites-offline-15918483",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-21T17:22:03.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Korea Times",
    "slug": "the-korea-times-koreatimes",
    "url": "https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/world/20261022/what-is-php-and-why-did-it-take-government-websites-offline"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Government websites across Europe experienced widespread outages on Wednesday as technicians worked urgently to patch two critical vulnerabilities found in PHP, the coding language powering much of the internet. PHP developers announced they would release fixes for the flaws, while EU cybersecurity authorities advised organizations unable to implement the patches to take affected sites offline.\n\nPHP, or Hypertext Preprocessor, is a server-side scripting language utilized for constructing websites. It operates behind the scenes, assembling page content and transmitting the complete page to the user's browser upon request. PHP is available free of charge, is open-source, and is maintained by a community of volunteers. Website owners typically do not interact with PHP directly.\n\nPHP powers approximately 70 percent of all websites whose programming language can be identified, according to web technology monitoring firm W3Techs. It serves as the backbone for popular platforms like WordPress, which manages about 40 percent of all websites, including blogs, small business portals, government websites, online stores, and news portals.\n\nThe two security flaws present significant risks.",
  "summary": "Government websites across Europe went dark on Wednesday as operators raced to patch two critical vulnerabilities in PHP, one of the most widely used programming languages on the web. The developers of PHP said on Wednesday they would release patches for two critical vulnerabilities, and EU cybersecurity officials warned organisations unable to apply the fixes to take affected websites offline.…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "The Korea Times",
        "title": "What is PHP and why did it take government websites offline?",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/21/what-is-php-and-why-did-it-take-government-websites-offline",
        "published": "2026-10-21T16:57:03.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}