Australian government sites among those exposed to 'critical' software flaw – ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Australian government sites among those exposed to ‘critical’ software flaw  ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The Australian Signals Directorate is among global cyber agencies urging organisations to quickly act to fix flaws in a programming language that hackers are believed to be exploiting. Developers of PHP are urging website operators to update their software to patch two major hacker vulnerabilities. (Reuters: Annegret Hilse) Two major vulnerabilities in programming language PHP have been discovered and websites are being urged to implement a fix as soon as possible. Australian government websites, including that of the Australian Signals Directorate, have been affected. It is believed hackers have been exploiting the vulnerability to target websites, and governments around the world have taken sites offline. Australia's own cybersecurity agency was among the government websites affected by vulnerabilities in a widely used internet programming language that hackers are believed to be exploiting.

Developers of the PHP programming language have identified two critical vulnerabilities and have been urging website operators to run an update to fix the issues. The issue was first discovered using AI, according to a Google-owned cybersecurity agency. PHP underpins large parts of the internet, raising concerns that a significant number of websites could be vulnerable to attack. Among those known to be affected are European government departments and popular sites like Wikipedia. The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) said yesterday that cyber.gov.au and other Australian government websites had reported