PHP security flaws take websites offline worldwide

Numerous websites were taken offline as a precaution after serious security flaws were found in PHP, a widely used programming language, ORF reported. In Lower Austria, affected sites included the state government’s website and local newspaper NÖN.

Millions of websites worldwide are at risk because PHP underpins everything from blogs and major news portals to online shops and content management systems such as WordPress. Government websites and universities in several parts of the world were also affected.

The state of Lower Austria said it had taken its website offline as a precaution and was working to restore secure operations. NÖN’s website and APA’s OTS service were also unavailable from the afternoon. Education institutions including the University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt and the Lower Austria University of Education reported that some systems had been temporarily shut down or were available only to a limited extent.

PHP developers have announced an update to address the flaws and urged users to install it immediately. Everyday internet users do not need to take direct action on their phones or computers, as the vulnerabilities affect servers rather than personal devices. However, users could be indirectly affected by outages or possible data leaks from websites that are not secured in time.