22.10.2026 17:32
A critical security vulnerability affecting internet infrastructure worldwide has alarmed public institutions and technology companies. As cyberattack attempts have rapidly increased due to the flaw in the PHP programming language, 32 public services in the UK were disabled, and many online services in Japan and various European countries were temporarily taken offline.
Critical security vulnerabilities identified in the PHP programming language, which is used by millions of websites worldwide, have put public institutions and companies on alert. In the UK, 32 public services went offline while 4 services experienced partial disruptions. In many countries, including Japan, France and Finland, online services were temporarily suspended due to the risk of possible cyberattacks.
MEASURES STEPPED UP IN THE UK
UK Technology Minister Baroness Lloyd of Effra said in a statement in the House of Lords that the disruptions in the country were largely caused by security updates and measures to reduce risks. Effra, noting that the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) had been informed about the vulnerability by OpenAI, said the government took preventive steps before the vulnerability was publicly disclosed.
Effra stated that the NCSC sent 50,000 preventive notifications across the country to warn businesses and other organizations, and stressed that they were not aware of any confirmed breach affecting the public sector or systems nationwide in the UK.
CYBERATTACK ATTEMPTS REACHED MILLIONS
PHP developers released emergency updates to fix security vulnerabilities on October 21. However, after the vulnerabilities were announced, attack attempts increased rapidly.
Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince reported that thousands of exploitation attempts were detected on their networks in the 10 hours before the vulnerability was publicly disclosed. Prince explained that after the announcement, attempts rose to tens of thousands in the first 45 minutes, to hundreds of thousands within two hours, and later reached millions.
Madeline Lawrence, co-founder of Belgium-based Aikido Security, noted that attackers were trying to exploit vulnerabilities using artificial intelligence and drew attention to companies racing against time to update their systems.
SERVICES TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED IN JAPAN AND EUROPE
Measures taken against the vulnerability affected public institutions and private sector organizations in different countries. In Japan, companies such as Nomura, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, ANA airline and East Japan Railway temporarily suspended some internet services. Japan's Ministry of Finance, Meteorological Agency and National Tax Agency also restricted some of their online services.
French telecommunications company Orange suspended access to PHP-based websites and applications at some of its subsidiaries as a precaution.
In Finland, state IT services provider Valtori began applying security updates after temporarily shutting down the government's public internet services. The agency announced that preventive access restrictions were being gradually lifted. Valtori Director General Hannu Naumanen, noting that systems needed to be tested, said that fully restoring services could take days or even weeks.
CHINA AND SOUTH KOREA ALSO STEPPED UP MEASURES
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology called on institutions and users to inspect their systems and switch to secure versions of PHP. South Korea, meanwhile, raised its cybersecurity alert level for the private sector due to the increased risk of attacks.
The UK Prime Minister's Office also announced that work was ongoing to identify and address possible security vulnerabilities in systems. It was noted that some services might temporarily go offline during security work, while it was stressed that this alone did not mean a cyberattack had occurred.
Experts point out that institutions should install security updates without delay, put their systems through comprehensive tests, and reopen services only after ensuring they are secure.