Immediate action needed over cyber security, warns Rotherham business

“With how AI is at the minute, you can literally just pump some code into ChatGPT or Claude and ask it to find a vulnerability”

A Rotherham -based cyber security firm has warned local businesses that urgent action is needed to prevent hacks after artificial intelligence discovered a massive exploit which threatened millions of websites last week.

Louis Marcus, co-founder of leading IT provider Balliante, has warned local businesses to update their systems to protect against threats from hackers.

Last week, hackers used artificial intelligence (AI) to discover an exploit in the programming language PHP which allowed them to gain access to websites which used older versions of it.

Sites were taken down precautionarily by several governments around the world as well as the BBC and online encyclopaedia Wikipedia.

“With how AI is at the minute, you can literally just pump some code into ChatGPT or Claude and ask it to find a vulnerability,” Mr Marcus said.

“PHP is a programming language that powers 70% of the entire internet. To date, hackers have launched millions of attacks, in a bid to steal data and potentially hold companies to ransom,” he added.

Mr Marcus, whose head-office is based on The Crofts in Rotherham town centre, explained that businesses should check to see if their website is using an older version of PHP which could be vulnerable to these hacks, and can their IT provider to find out.

He urged anyone with a website using an older version of the language to put immediate measures in place to prevent hackers from gaining access to sensitive customer data or from taking control of the site.

He said: “Any website using PHP version 8.1 or older must take immediate action, as the official fixes are not compatible with older versions of the programming language, and could provide an easy way for opportunistic hackers to take control of websites remotely and steal the data they hold.”

The use of AI in hacking is becoming more frequent as software develops, and many worry that attacks like this will become common.

Mr Marcus said: “Normal people have not picked it up, but as soon as AI has picked it up people have exploited it. It's likely to happen again, but you just have to keep on top of these updates.”