Race to update services' computer systems after cyber-security flaw found – BBC

Race to update services’ computer systems after cyber-security flaw found  BBC

Websites were taken offline after the developers of programming language PHP said "critical vulnerabilities" had been discovered. Organisations and businesses are still scrambling to update their systems after cyber-security flaws were revealed in a widely-used programming language, PHP. Websites around the world were taken offline on Wednesday and Thursday after the developers of PHP said "critical vulnerabilities" were found in the back-end language, used in web development for decades. Researchers warned the "severe" flaws could expose millions of sites using it to potential hacks if left unpatched – and the UK government was among those to take some sites offline as a precaution. There have been no successful attacks reported so far, but experts say any impact may take time – even months – to become fully apparent.

Downing Street said on Thursday "some" limited government services "may be offline" while security work was being carried out. "The information I have is that 32 Government services are unavailable and four are partially unavailable," tech minister Baroness Lloyd of Effra told the House of Lords. She attributed this to having "largely resulted from precautionary measures taken to protect systems while security updates and mitigations are applied". The government did not specify which services were taken offline – but it said no large UK public-facing critical services had been affected. A spokesperson