Government and private websites across Europe and beyond were temporarily taken offline Wednesday as cybersecurity agencies urged immediate updates to the PHP programming language. The vulnerabilities, discovered by AI, are considered severe, potentially granting direct access to server files and databases. Finland’s government shut down its public web services, while the Netherlands’ cyber-security agency and the US National Security Agency took their own sites offline as a precaution. The Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia, also took systems offline, causing partial access disruptions. Several other organizations, including the BBC and Edinburgh council, reported taking pages offline, though a direct link to PHP was not immediately confirmed in all cases. Cybersecurity firms Wiz and Calif identified the flaws using AI developed by OpenAI, estimating that roughly 70% of the internet is affected. The White House stated federal agencies are working with AI labs to expedite a fix. While the vulnerabilities had gone undetected for over a decade, the use of advanced AI significantly accelerated the discovery and development of exploits.
Multiple sources report that this is one of the most severe vulnerabilities ever discovered, and the speed of discovery was enabled by AI. The vulnerabilities allow potential access to a server’s file system or database. The US National Security Agency advised organizations unable to update to take systems offline. Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi urged checks for PHP usage on publicly available websites. The Netherlands’ National Institute for Public Health and the Environment also took its website offline. DeviantArt stated it was temporarily down for maintenance.
Left-leaning outlets emphasize the widespread impact and the role of AI in both discovering and addressing the vulnerabilities. Right-leaning coverage is absent from this cluster of sources.
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