New Delhi: A critical security flaw in the web programming language PHP knocked several government websites in Europe and the United States offline on Wednesday, in an outage reported to have been detected with the help of artificial intelligence.
The website of the Finnish government was only partly available on Wednesday. A message to visitors said government websites were experiencing a temporary disruption and were fully or partially unavailable while the issue was being resolved.
A large part of the global web runs on PHP, which is why cybersecurity experts said the flaw's reach could be wide. There is concern that the vulnerability could put sensitive information on affected sites at risk.
The flaw is said to have been found by AI tools. That defenders learnt of it before attackers could exploit it may have averted a bigger crisis, but administrators are being urged to patch systems without delay.
Many websites and services in India also run on PHP. Experts advised domestic organisations to audit their systems and update security, and called for an urgent safety review of both government and private websites.
PHP powers a huge share of the world's websites and services, from government schemes and schools to hospitals and banks. A flaw of this kind therefore carries a broad blast radius. Cybersecurity experts advised organisations to patch their systems without delay. Because AI can help defenders spot a flaw before attackers exploit it, its role in security operations is growing. Users were also urged not to enter personal information on suspicious websites.
Cybersecurity experts say that if such flaws are not fixed in time, the risk of data theft and service outages grows. Organisations need regular security audits and staff training.