Race to update services' computer systems after cyber-security flaw found

Government and corporate websites were shut down across the world overnight into Wednesday after cybersecurity firms used artificial intelligence to reveal critical flaws in widely used programming language PHP. PHP programmers on Wednesday released a patch fixing the vulnerability.

Governments and companies around the world shut down websites as they raced Thursday to protect themselves from hacks after artificial intelligence uncovered critical flaws in a widely used programming language called PHP.

The vulnerabilities with PHP, a programming language widely used across the internet, have been described as the most significant ever found by AI.

AI was used to pinpoint two vulnerabilities in the PHP language, used by about 70 percent of websites.

Government agencies and companies around the world shut down websites Wednesday after two critical flaws came to light involving PHP, a programming language that is the basis for a large share of the internet.

Websites were taken offline after the developers of programming language PHP said "critical vulnerabilities" had been discovered.