Finland takes government websites offline over critical cybersecurity flaws

By Seyma Erkul Dayanc

ISTANBUL (AA) - Finland temporarily took government websites and other online services offline Wednesday after researchers identified two critical security vulnerabilities in PHP software widely used to run websites.

The Government ICT Centre (Valtori), which maintains government online services, began restricting public access to affected systems as a precaution against potential cyberattacks.

The vulnerabilities were identified in PHP, a server-side programming language used by websites and online platforms worldwide.

Valtori Director General Hannu Naumanen told Finnish news agency STT that the shutdowns began shortly after 1 pm local time (1000GMT).

The National Land Survey's website was among services taken offline. The disruptions also affected Finnish public broadcaster Yle's online services, as well as the websites of the Helsinki Book Fair and the Finnish Film Foundation.

Valtori did not specify which services the shutdowns would affect.

Finland's Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom) said Wednesday that it had identified two critical vulnerabilities and that security updates were not yet available.

The software developers said they expected to release patches addressing the vulnerabilities at 5 pm.

Valtori said it would update the PHP applications it maintains once the fixes became available.

Şeyma Erkul Dayanç