Which big websites have been hit by the PHP crisis? Heres the list so far

Date:
Thu, 22 Oct 2026 11:58:44 +0000

Description:
Major websites are going offline as they attempt to patch a huge PHP vulnerability. Heres what we know.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter A major PHP vulnerability has affected scores of websites Many popular sites have gone offline or
restricted their operations Government sites across Europe have also been affected A major flaw found in the PHP coding language that powers an untold number of websites across the internet has seen scores of sites taken offline as they attempt to patch out the severe vulnerability.

If youve found your favorite website has been unavailable over the last few days, theres a chance its related to this security incident. Here, weve put together a list of as many affected websites as we can find, along with reasoning given by the sites where possible. You can also follow all the latest news in our PHP crisis liveblog . Latest Videos From TechRadar Watch full video here: Global sites 1. Wikimedia / Wikipedia (Image credit: Wikimedia / @oscarmike88) The Wikimedia Foundation said it had taken some services offline to patch the PHP security vulnerability.

The group runs popular websites like Wikipedia and said in a blog post that You may see outages for our wikis as we work on this, and we have
deliberately taken many of our supporting services offline until they can be safely patched. You may like PHP security crisis live all the latest news as issues affect websites across the world PHP releases emergency fixes as some of the world's biggest websites say they were targeted by hackers Website admins across the world bracing for impact following major PHP flaw reveal

The organization said this includes services such as Toolforge and Cloud VPS, while a separate post said that Wikimedia Cloud Services and other tools were affected. 2. Internet Archive An update from Brewster Kahle on today's
outage. https://t.co/Gukju5sKFO October 21, 2026 The Internet Archive, which backs up pages across the internet, was offline on October 21. The organization posted on X to say that Archive.org is currently offline. We are working to restore service now, although this was not definitively linked to the PHP incident. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle called his organizations operations staff heroes due to their actions in limiting the damage. 3. Orange Telecom (Image credit: Getty Images / Chesnot) The telecommunications giant Orange
has announced thats it's "temporarily" suspended access to several of its websites and apps that use PHP.

That move affects dozens of countries, mostly in Europe but also Africa and the Middle East. Orange called it a "precautionary" measure and that each country would communicate which sites have been affected locally. What to
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That could cause a lot of confusion in some regions for example, in France Orange has over 34 million customers. Orange said it "apologizes to impacted customers and users for any inconvenience caused". Other popular sites Many other high-traffic websites were affected or taken offline in response to the PHP crisis. That included several of the BBC news sites pages, message board 4chan, school community site Pinboard, wiki hosting site Miraheze, and
mapping tool OpenStreetMap all either went offline or restricted their operations.

Some major sites paused operations without mentioning PHP. That included the likes of Nintendo , productivity tool Asana, language-learning platform Duolingo, and games storefront GOG.

And several games also went offline, such as Pokmon Sleep , Umamusume: Pretty Derby , Granblue Fantasy , and Princess Connect! Re:Dive . UK sites
Consistent with guidance from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), we have taken our website offline in view of the critical security issues affecting PHP. We will continue to follow further guidance.
For more information, see the NCSC advisory: https://t.co/A3qp8ESZtf October 21, 2026 A UK minister has revealed that 32 government services are currently offline due to the PHP security threat, while a spokesperson added: "Our work has begun with OpenAI and NCSC to fix vulnerabilities in government systems".

Meanwhile, the countrys Office for Budget Responsibility took to X on October 21 to announce that Consistent with guidance from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), we have taken our website offline in view of the critical security issues affecting PHP. We will continue to follow further guidance.
As of October 22, the Offices website is back online.

The National Cyber Security Centre also warned organizations to identify
where PHP was used across their systems and update to the latest version of the coding language as soon as possible. It added that If you are unable to apply the temporary mitigations, or applying them would take too long, you should consider taking the system offline until it can be fully mitigated.

Several local government websites also went offline in the UK, including
those of Edinburgh Council, Oxfordshire County Council and Hillingdon
Council. Europe A large number of European governmental and commercial websites have been taken offline while patches are rolled out for the PHP vulnerability. That includes those below: Belgium: The Foreign Ministry Czechia: The national government website Denmark: Municipal IT company Kombit Finland: Public government service websites France: Local government (prefecture) websites run by the Interior Ministry Germany: The federal IT service provider ITZBund Netherlands: The National Cyber Security Centre Netherlands: The Port of Rotterdam Netherlands: Government website
Overheid.nl Netherlands: National football association KNVB Netherlands: The websites of the five largest political parties Netherlands: The websites of many national hospitals Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. The best laptops for all budgets Our top picks, based on real-world testing and comparisons

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/computing/cyber-security/which-major-websites-have-b een-hit-by-the-php-security-crisis-here-are-the-biggest-so-far-from-wikipedia- to-the-internet-archive


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