Around 25 Madhya Pradesh government department websites taken offline over hacking fears

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): About 25 Madhya Pradesh government department websites have been temporarily shut down amid fears of cyberattacks. Officials said the websites were taken offline to upgrade the PHP programming language and protect government data from hackers.

The move has raised questions over the functioning of government departments. Questions have also been raised over the role of the National Informatics Centre (NIC), which provides technical support to government websites.

It has been stated that many departments had not updated information on welfare schemes, government orders and important announcements for years. But websites of departments that posted information regularly have also been shut. This has affected people's access to essential services.

According to cyber security experts, two major flaws, being called PHP2Shell, have been found in PHP, a programming language widely used to build websites. Through them, hackers can run harmful code on a server without authorisation. They can steal sensitive information such as passwords and application programming interface (API) keys.

Officials said PHP versions are being upgraded to guard against possible cyberattacks. It has been stated that about 90 per cent of Madhya Pradesh's government websites run on PHP.

It has been stated that this security flaw is about 10 years old. This has led to the question of why the necessary update was delayed. NIC officials have also come under scrutiny over the lapse. Department officials say the PHP upgrade was necessary to stop unauthorised intrusion into government computer systems.

Cyber security experts said older versions of PHP eventually stop receiving security updates and technical support. This stage is called end-of-life (EOL). Websites running such versions face a higher risk of hacking, data theft and other cyber threats. Newer versions offer better security, fixes for flaws and better performance.

The experts stressed that regular updates are necessary to keep sensitive government information safe, and that it must also be ensured that online services continue to reach people without interruption.