What is PHP and why did it spark a global cyber security scramble?
Researchers have identified severe, long-standing vulnerabilities in the PHP programming language using artificial intelligence. Governments and security agencies are urging immediate updates to prevent potential data theft and server exploitation.
Why it matters
PHP powers a significant portion of the global internet, meaning these flaws could expose millions of websites and sensitive user data to cyberattacks.
Image source, Reuters By Osmond Chia Business reporter Published 12 minutes ago For more than a decade, serious flaws had gone undetected in technology underpinning much of the internet.
It took artificial intelligence (AI) to bring them to light and caused a global cyber-security alert.
The vulnerabilities lie within a programming language called PHP, which has been used internationally since the 2000s to build websites.
Governments and cyber-security agencies around the world scrambled to contain the fallout of this discovery on Wednesday, and have urged website operators to install a new emergency fix or consider taking their platforms offline.
Cyber-security firm Wiz - one of the companies whose researchers uncovered the vulnerabilities - described the flaws as the "most severe" ever detected by AI.
OpenAI, whose technology was used to find the flaws, called the discovery "one of the most impactful security issues in recent memory".
Headlinne story · 7 newsrooms
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