A critical flaw affecting 70% of all websites has the cybersecurity world panicked

Key points

• A critical flaw in PHP, the programming language behind more than 70% of websites, has been made public. Left unfixed, it could allow hackers to take over millions of websites and the data on their servers.
• Several European governments and operators, including the Port of Rotterdam, have taken websites offline. Australia's Signals Directorate and similar bodies in other countries have urged developers to apply urgent updates.
• Patches have been released, but applying them across millions of systems will take time.