Government websites and public services across Europe have been temporarily taken offline after two critical security vulnerabilities were discovered in PHP, a programming language widely used to operate websites. The flaws, identified with the help of artificial intelligence, have prompted precautionary shutdowns in Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium and the United Kingdom. A hospital website in Antwerp is among the affected services, while Finland’s government web services and the Dutch cybersecurity agency’s website have also been taken offline. Emergency security patches have been released, but authorities are urging website operators to restrict access or shut down affected systems if updates cannot be installed immediately. The US National Security Agency has also advised taking vulnerable systems offline until they can be secured. Cybersecurity experts warn that smaller websites without dedicated security teams could face particular risks. The incident highlights AI’s growing role in identifying cybersecurity threats, even as concerns mount over AI-related hacking.
Al Jazeera’s Rosie Birchard reports from Brussels.
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