Apologies for downtime last night

[Maz]

It was necessary to take the site offline overnight last night (daytime for US members!) due to the server waiting for patch fixes for a global php issue, which was a serious threat. You may have seen it on the news. Due to the delays in servers obtaining the full fix, it was safer to take the site offline temporarily. Sorry for any disruption or confusion All sorted now. It affected most sites on the internet globally (about 70% I think).

 

[Socks' Mum]

Yikes, good to hear we are safe

 

[Maz]

Yes the server had put mitigations in place straight away but I wasn't happy that it took so long to do the patch and didn't want to just rely on the mitigations just in case, although I'm sure they were adequate. Taking it offline overnight was the foolproof option

 

[Socks' Mum]

Yes, a large number of sites went offline to be safe. Wise choice

 

[Maz]

Most servers put mitigations in place straight away, and we had Cloudflare protection as well, but the final patch is where you relax and know the job is done. No harm to the server or this site.

The irony is, I read that this flaw has been there for about a decade but only just discovered.

 

[Socks' Mum]

Yikes. We were saved by a friendly robot.

 

[Maz]

Yikes. We were saved by a friendly robot.

I know it's bizarre isn't it. An AI found the flaw that had been there about a decade, and yet it's AI people are probably using to programme nefarious bots to hit websites. The war of the bots! Reminds me of that AA Milne poem about good bear and bad bear .

I guess it also depends whose hands the AI is in.