P Stands for Problem

Cybersecurity agencies are flashing warning lights.

Wednesday, developers for PHP, a programming language powering ~70% of the world’s websites, released emergency patches for two critical flaws that could allow hackers to take over affected web servers. (We made a visual for ourselves you.) Mass outages hit as websites, including government sites across Europe, temporarily went offline to prevent attacks while patching.

The flaws scored a 9.2/10 on the industry’s severity scale, with researchers saying they “rank among the most severe vulnerabilities discovered… in software history.”

Researchers uncovered the bugs in August using ChatGPT models and began secretly working on a fix. But publicizing the patch is a double-edged sword: it provides a fix, but also alerts hackers to a way to hijack websites that are slow to update their code. If you run a website, take heed (here’s a link to check if your website’s on WordPress).

CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE
Even if the scariest predictions about technology come to pass, God will remain God and our eternal life with Christ will remain secure. Be quick to point to God and give Him the credit for your hope, strength, and love during times dominated by uncertainty and fear.

“The life of every living thing is in his hand, as well as the breath of all humanity.”
Job 12:10 (CSB) (read full passage)