Websites worldwide go dark as AI exposes security flaws

On October 21, multiple government agencies and companies shut down websites due to critical vulnerabilities in PHP, a widely used programming language. The US NSA urged immediate action to patch or take vulnerable systems offline, as attackers could exploit these flaws to access servers without passwords. The PHP Foundation released a fix the same day, emphasizing the urgency for updates. The vulnerabilities were initially reported by security firms in August and kept confidential until details leaked online. In response, various countries, including France and the Netherlands, took precautionary measures by taking government websites offline.