On Oct. 21, MacEwan University temporarily shut down several online services for emergency maintenance until 3:00 p.m. Systems included paskwâwi-mostos mêskanâs, myPortal, MacEwan.ca, the MacEwan Library website, and password reset services.
In a statement to the Griff, the university explained, “The shutdown was a precautionary response to a PHP security vulnerability. We understand there were attempts to exploit this vulnerability that escalated rapidly worldwide, reaching millions within hours of its public announcement.”
Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) is an open-source programming language developed and managed by the non-profit PHP Foundation. The foundation announced earlier that day that two vulnerabilities were found that would allow hackers to access websites via memory caches and potentially plant malware on PHP-powered websites. A patch update was quickly released by the foundation.
The vulnerabilities were discovered by OpenAI as part of its Patch the Planet initiative, which uses AI models to “uncover security flaws with internet-scale impact.”
The PHP Foundation and cybersecurity agencies across the globe, including the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, issued a public alert warning institutions to take down their websites until the patch could be implemented.
According to a CBC report, approximately 70-75 per cent of websites on the internet were affected.
“While the situation caused some disruption for our users, our Information Technology Services team acted swiftly, proactively taking affected services offline to protect our systems and the data of our students, faculty and staff,” MacEwan University said.
“There is no indication that MacEwan’s systems were compromised.”
