Government and ministry websites protected promptly after PHP vulnerabilities
The Ministry of Digital Transformation temporarily blocked external traffic, applied patches and found no indications of compromise, the cabinet of Minister Stefan Andonovski said.
Government and ministry websites in North Macedonia were protected promptly after security flaws were disclosed in the PHP programming language, the Ministry of Digital Transformation said. The ministry said it took preventive steps to limit exposure while technicians applied fixes.
Immediate measures and checks
As a precaution, the ministry temporarily blocked external web traffic to affected systems to reduce the risk of exploitation, and later verified software versions and applied appropriate patches and updates to web servers. Functionality and server security were also tested before services were restored, the statement said.
"According to checks so far, there are no indications of successful exploitation of the mentioned vulnerabilities or of compromise of the Government and ministries' websites," the cabinet of Minister Stefan Andonovski said.
The ministry added that its Cybersecurity Sector and the government computer security team (MKD-GOV-CSIRT) are maintaining heightened, continuous monitoring of cyber threats, analysing security events and logs, and examining potential indicators of compromise.
"Protecting the government's digital infrastructure remains a priority for the Ministry. Through timely detection and removal of vulnerabilities and application of appropriate security updates, the Ministry continues to strengthen the security of systems and to ensure the secure and stable operation of electronic services for citizens and businesses," the ministry statement said.
The PHP flaws that triggered the global response affect a widely used programming language that supports many popular web platforms such as WordPress, Wikipedia, Slack and large parts of Facebook. Security company Wiz estimated PHP is used by around 70 percent of the world's websites. Following the revelations, several governments and organisations worldwide temporarily took websites offline as a precaution; the U.S. National Security Agency urged organizations to patch immediately or remove vulnerable systems from the internet.
Photo: Printskrin
