Global firms and governments have rushed to patch critical flaws in the PHP programming language, which underpins much of the internet, after a cloud firm reported millions of hacking attempts. The push came after governments in Europe and elsewhere took websites offline as a precaution while website operators scrambled to secure systems running the software. This has marked one of the most dramatic tests of the decades-old programming tools that keep the web running.
The developers of PHP released fixes for vulnerabilities that had lurked in the software for years until they were uncovered using AI, urging users to "update immediately". Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said at an event in Germany that the incident showed the importance of building software that can be maintained securely as systems grow more complex. Madeline Lawrence, co-founder of Belgian cybersecurity firm Aikido Security, noted that details of the flaws had become public before fixes were ready, with attacks reported since.
As companies and governments deployed patches and suspended websites as a precaution, hacking attempts surged into the millions, according to cloud services firm Cloudflare. Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince said that in the 10 hours before the vulnerability was publicly announced, the firm saw thousands of attempts to exploit it, which jumped to tens of thousands in the 45 minutes post-announcement, hundreds of thousands within 2 hours, and millions now.
Japanese companies, including brokerage Nomura, lender Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, airline ANA, and East Japan Railway, temporarily suspended some internet services as part of emergency measures. Brewer Asahi Group Holdings temporarily suspended certain websites and systems and was conducting a security impact assessment. Insurer Tokio Marine Holdings said it had suspended its group website.
Japan's Ministry of Finance and Meteorological Agency partially suspended online services to implement safety measures, while Japan's National Tax Agency temporarily took down its service. The precautionary shutdowns show Japan's growing concerns over cybersecurity, as the country recorded more cyber incidents in the first nine months of the year than in all of last year, according to data from TrendAI.
Other countries, including France, China, and South Korea, have also taken measures to address the PHP vulnerabilities. French telecoms group Orange said it had temporarily suspended access to certain PHP-based websites and applications across several subsidiaries as a precaution. Tencent Cloud urged customers to install updated PHP versions but stopped short of calling for widespread website shutdowns.
Finland's state IT services provider Valtori said it had continued installing PHP security patches overnight and was gradually lifting precautionary service blocks after shutting down government public web services a day earlier. Several Asian governments ordered cybersecurity inspections related to the PHP vulnerabilities, and China's industry ministry urged organisations and users to inspect systems and upgrade to the latest secure version of PHP.
Key points
- Millions of hacking attempts reported amid PHP vulnerabilities
- Governments and firms scramble to patch critical flaws
- Precautionary shutdowns implemented in several countries
