Asian Nations Order Cyber Inspections After Critical PHP Vulnerabilities Disclosed
Following the release of urgent patches for long-standing PHP flaws, several Asian governments launched cybersecurity inspections and urged immediate system upgrades.
Companies and public agencies worldwide began updating the widely used PHP programming language on Thursday after the vulnerabilities were disclosed, prompting a sharp increase in hacking attempts. The flaws, which had existed for years, were uncovered with the help of artificial-intelligence tools, and developers released emergency fixes, urging all users to upgrade without delay.
In response, China’s industry ministry called on organizations and users to inspect their systems, upgrade to the latest secure PHP version, strengthen monitoring and promptly change accounts, passwords and cryptographic keys. South Korea elevated its private-sector cybersecurity alert level and activated emergency response measures, citing heightened risk of attacks.
The rapid uptake of the patches was described by officials as moving from tens of thousands of updates within 45 minutes of the announcement to millions of installations shortly thereafter.