Australian government agencies and businesses have been forced to take websites offline after artificial intelligence researchers uncovered critical vulnerabilities in PHP, one of the world’s most widely used web programming languages.
PHP powers an estimated 70% of websites globally, including systems used by governments, universities, businesses and major content-management platforms.
Australian cyber authorities issued a critical alert after researchers identified two vulnerabilities capable of allowing attackers to remotely take control of affected servers.
Some government websites were temporarily taken offline as a precaution while emergency patches were applied.
AI changes cyber arms race
The vulnerabilities had existed for years but were identified with the help of advanced artificial intelligence systems.
That has highlighted the growing role AI is playing in cybersecurity.
The same technology that allows researchers to discover hidden software weaknesses more quickly could also allow attackers to exploit vulnerabilities at unprecedented speed.
Australian authorities have warned organisations to identify systems running affected PHP versions and apply security updates immediately.
Large companies and government departments are likely to respond quickly, but smaller businesses running older or poorly maintained websites may remain vulnerable.
No breach of Australian government systems has been confirmed.
The incident nevertheless provides a glimpse of a new cyber-security environment in which AI can dramatically shorten the time between discovery of a vulnerability and potential exploitation.
For Australian businesses, that means patching software and responding to security warnings may increasingly need to happen in hours rather than days or weeks.
