Edinburgh Council website taken offline due to PHP security flaws

Summarised from 3 outlets · 4 reports · Updated 21 Oct, 18:03 · Archive

Edinburgh Council has taken its website offline after critical cybersecurity vulnerabilities were discovered in PHP.

Edinburgh Council has taken its website offline after critical vulnerabilities were discovered in PHP, the programming language that powers much of the internet. The flaws were found on Wednesday, 21 October. According to Edinburgh Live, the council is among organisations that were unable to apply fixes in time and chose to take their sites down as a precaution.

Other affected organisations include the BBC, whose websites for programmes including Doctor Who and The Traitors have gone offline, and the official government website of Finland. The Netherlands' cyber-security agency has also taken its own site offline. The cybersecurity company Wiz discovered the flaws using artificial intelligence and described them as the 'most severe vulnerabilities ever discovered' by the technology.

Eddinburgh Council's website displays a maintenance message to users attempting to access it. A council spokesperson told Edinburgh Live that the organisation is waiting on an update from its web provider, with hopes to restore the site as soon as possible. The council has asked people with urgent enquiries to call 0131 200 2000 in the meantime.

How it is being reported

• Edinburgh council website offline amid global cyber security alertTwo critical vulnerabilities with the PHP programming language are said to have been foundThe Scotsman · 21 Oct, 18:09
• Edinburgh council website offline as operators race to patch critical vulnerabilityWebsites have been encouraged to update their systems following yesterday’s massive outageEdinburgh Evening News · 21 Oct, 17:58
• Edinburgh council website offline as operators race to patch critical vulnerabilityWebsites have been encouraged to update their systems following yesterday’s massive outageEdinburgh Evening News · 21 Oct, 17:24
• Edinburgh Council among websites taken down due to ongoing 'cyber incident'A number of organisations in Europe have taken websites down as a precaution.Edinburgh Live · 21 Oct, 17:08

In this story: Edinburgh Council · BBC · Wiz · Finland · Netherlands · Edinburgh

This summary was written by AI from the headlines and standfirsts above, and states as fact only what at least two outlets report. How we use AI · Report a problem