University and hospital websites in Germany were temporarily taken offline due to a cyber threat

In Germany, a number of websites belonging to government agencies, universities, and hospitals were temporarily taken offline after two critical vulnerabilities were discovered in the PHP programming language. Following the release of security updates, some of the websites were restored, but others remain inaccessible.

“A number of institutions have taken the precautionary measure of shutting down their online services due to the vulnerability,” the publication notes.

In particular, universities, municipal administrations, and hospitals followed the recommendations to temporarily suspend their websites. Some of their online resources have become temporarily unavailable.

Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) issued an official warning, assigning the threat a “3/orange” level, which indicates an extremely high risk.

The agency emphasized that the identified vulnerabilities pose an “exceptionally high threat potential” and that protective measures must be taken immediately to prevent serious disruptions to information systems.

These are two critical vulnerabilities, collectively known as PHP2Shell, which threaten the operation of websites and online services worldwide. They could allow attackers to remotely execute malicious code on unprotected servers without prior authorization. If an attack is successful, hackers can gain full control of a website, steal users’ confidential data, or use the server to launch further cyberattacks.

PHP is used to power a large number of online resources—from small blogs to major news portals, online stores, and content management systems. In particular, WordPress, Joomla!, Moodle, and Typo3 are based on this programming language.

According to experts, there are between 400 and 500 million websites worldwide running on the WordPress platform alone.

On Wednesday, October 21, PHP developers released updated versions of the software that address the identified vulnerabilities.

The BSI urged website administrators to install the updates immediately and, if necessary, to completely disconnect their servers from the network until security measures are completed. Outdated versions of PHP that are no longer supported by developers pose a particular risk.

At the same time, there is no immediate need for ordinary internet users to take special measures, as the vulnerabilities affect servers, not their smartphones or computers. However, they may be indirectly affected by disruptions to online services or potential leaks of personal data.

This was reported with reference to Tagesschau.

Government websites in Europe are being taken offline due to the threat of cyberattacks — Reuters.

Ukraine is joining the EU’s cyber reserve to defend against attacks.

Poland supports Ukraine’s path toward European integration and is not imposing any additional conditions or reservations regarding this process.

European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos stated that she would be “the happiest person in the world” if Ukraine were able to sign an accession agreement with the European Union during her term. At the same time, she emphasized that no specific dates have been set in Brussels yet, as the process depends not only on Ukraine but also on all EU member states.