Race to update services' computer systems after cyber-security flaw found
Global organizations are rushing to patch critical security vulnerabilities discovered in the PHP programming language. While no major hacks have been reported, the UK government has taken several services offline as a precaution.
Why it matters
The widespread use of PHP means that unpatched vulnerabilities pose a significant risk to the stability and security of global web infrastructure.
Share Save Add as preferred on Google Tom Gerken and Liv McMahon , Technology reporters How did AI discover the internet's massive cyber-security risk? Organisations and businesses are still scrambling to update their systems after cyber-security flaws were revealed in a widely-used programming language, PHP.
Websites around the world were taken offline on Wednesday and Thursday after the developers of PHP said "critical vulnerabilities" were found in the back-end language, used in web development for decades.
Researchers warned the "severe" flaws could expose millions of sites using it to potential hacks if left unpatched - and the UK government was among those to take some sites offline as a precaution.
There have been no successful attacks reported so far, but experts say any impact may take time - even months - to become fully apparent.
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