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Met Police, council and government websites are taken offline as critical flaws put 70% of the internet at risk

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.
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.

Edinburgh, Oxford, Bristol, Lambeth and Barnet council sites were hit, and the online home of 'The Traitors' went down too. Finland has temporarily shut its government's public web services, and the Netherlands' cyber-security agency pulled its own site. The National Cyber Security Centre told organisations that cannot patch to consider going offline. Fixes from the PHP Foundation were due at 3pm BST.

Both PHP flaws are rated 9.2 out of 10 and could let hackers in without logging in.

Wordfence warns that automatic WordPress updates will not install the PHP fix.

Cloudflare's Dane Knecht says early attacks are emerging: 'This is a STOPGAP only.'

MoreBBC News - TechStates of Guernsey websites taken offline over hacking concernsDaily MailMillions warned as flaws put up to 70% of the world's websites at riskLBCWebsites taken offline as ‘critical’ security flaw hits Met Police, Traitors and government sitesThe IndependentGovernment sites taken down after vulnerabilities revealed in common website programming languageThe TelegraphWebsites go offline after critical security glitchBBC News - TechCyber chiefs tell websites to make critical safety update or go offlineLBCWebsites across whole internet may go dark as UK cyber chiefs issue urgent warning over critical security flawsThe IndependentSome websites may go down as huge internet vulnerabilities found, cyber agency warnsPoliticoUS, allies warn of critical vulnerabilities in programming underlying 70% of the internetReutersWebsites taken offline over PHP risksReutersEU agency warns websites may need to be taken offline as PHP prepares patches for vulnerabilitiesGreek City TimesCritical PHP Flaws Put Websites at Risk as Security Patches Loom
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