[Severe Security Vulnerability in PHP Exposed, Government Websites in Multiple Countries Taken Offline on a Large Scale] Odaily Planet Daily News: Due to a severe security vulnerability discovered in the widely used PHP programming language, multiple government websites in Europe and other regions were forced offline on Wednesday as website operators took urgent measures to protect system security. The PHP development team announced on Tuesday local time that two critical security vulnerabilities had been identified and urged users to update immediately once the patch was released. On Wednesday, the PHP team stated that a new version addressing the vulnerabilities had been officially released. However, reports of hackers exploiting the vulnerabilities to breach websites prompted government agencies in countries like the Netherlands and Finland to preemptively shut down some websites before the patch was available. PHP is one of the most widely used programming languages on the internet, powering website platforms such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and Magento. According to website technology statistics provider W3Techs, approximately 75% of websites that can identify their programming language use PHP. Globally, about 43% of websites are powered by WordPress, including blogs, small business websites, government portals, e-commerce platforms, and news websites. This security incident has caused widespread website outages across multiple European countries. Websites temporarily taken offline include the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the government portal Overheid.nl, the Dutch Football Association, the websites of the country's five major political parties, and several hospital websites.