Government websites across Europe go dark after hackers target a flaw in the software behind most of the internet
Generic imagery of computer hackers. Cloudflare's Dane Knecht warns early attacks are already appearing ahead of today's patch for two PHP flaws each scoring 9.2 on the severity scale.
The hidden code that builds roughly 70% of websites, called PHP, has two serious security holes that let hackers take over a site without logging in. France, the Netherlands, Finland and Belgium pulled ministry, hospital and school sites offline as a precaution. A fix was released on Wednesday afternoon. Cloudflare's technology chief Dane Knecht says early attacks are already emerging.
Details of the flaws leaked online early, forcing the fix out a day ahead of schedule.
Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi issued 'an urgent request for everyone to take action tonight'.
The flaws sat unnoticed for over a decade before AI tools helped uncover them.
