A series of websites and public services in some parts of the world have been placed out of place as a precautionary measure, following the discovery of two critical security weaknesses in the PHP — a programming language widely used on the internet.
Cyber security agencies have urged organisations to install respective updates immediately, while those who cannot do so in time are advised to temporarily cut off systems affected by the internet.
According to the BBC, among the institutions and platforms that have taken steps are the public services of the government of Finland, the website of cyber security authority in the Netherlands, several Dutch Parliament services and pages linked to BBC programmes. Even the Wikimedia Foundation, which administers the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, has announced that it is addressing the problem and temporarily disabled several systems as a safeguard clause.
The weaknesses were discovered by cybersecurity researchers from Calif and Wiz companies who used artificial intelligence to identify them. According to researchers, problems may have remained undiscovered for more than a decade.
Cyber security agencies in the United Kingdom, the European Union, Australia, Japan and the United States have demanded that organisations using PHP install security upgrades.
British Agency. The CSC has warned that, in cases where immediate adjustment is not possible, organisations should consider provisional extraction out of the function of affected systems.
The US National Security Agency has given similar advice, while the White House has announced that federal agencies are co-operating with major artificial intelligence labs to speed up the problem.
According to experts, weaknesses can create opportunities for attackers to access file systems or server databases. If successfully exploited, they can be used for the execution of the remote code, installing malicious software, or cutting off the operation of the web pages, abcnews.al writes.
Authorities call on organisations to implement updates, monitor further security reports and verify the integrity of the systems before they can fully restore the operation.
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