PHP vulnerabilities shut down global websites in cybersecurity scare

By Paul Logothetis

Media Relations Advisor, uOttawa

October 22, 2026

Computer screen displaying code
Mohammad Rahmani (Unsplash)
Website operators took pages offline as they raced to patch two critical vulnerabilities in PHP, one of the most widely used programming languages on the web. Cybersecurity agencies across the globe – including in Canada and the United States, Europe, Australia, Japan, and the United Kingdom – urged PHP users to install updates immediately or take their websites offline until security patches could be implemented.

Members of the media may directly contact the following uOttawa academic experts:

Karen Eltis (English and French)

Full Professor, Faculty of Law - Civil Law Section, and faculty member at the Centre for Law, Technology and Society.

[email protected]

Professor Karen Eltis specializes in artificial intelligence law and cyberlaw from a comparative perspective. Her areas of interest touch on digital sovereignty and AI deployment in the justice system. She can offer a legal analysis of this matter.

“With public trust at stake in deploying AI, governments do not have the luxury of moving fast and breaking things. There has been talk of an ‘AI apolocalypse,’ but the real institutional threats are far more subtle and are already here. This includes the risk of decision maker substitution/abdication and/or an invisible marriage with foreign commercial actors. This in turn raises issues of digital sovereignty and legality, as recently recognized by a widely cited QC case earlier this year.”