Japan takes PHP sites offline over security flaws as US keeps them online

Japan is taking down some websites running PHP after security flaws surfaced, while the United States is keeping affected sites online, Nikkei Asia reports today. The split response underscores an urgent debate over handling newly disclosed flaws in one of the web's most widely used server-side languages. With PHP underpinning a large share of global sites, any outage or compromise could ripple through businesses and public services.

Nikkei Asia says Japanese operators were instructed to temporarily suspend vulnerable pages while patches are assessed, as US counterparts apply mitigations without pulling services. Industry tracker W3Techs estimates PHP powers roughly 76 percent of websites using a known server-side language, highlighting potential exposure. Watch for official patch releases, clearer guidance from national cyber agencies, and any signs of exploitation against unpatched servers. [Developing. This article will be updated.]