Tokyo, Oct. 22 (Jiji Press)–The Japanese government has not received any reports of damage caused by critical vulnerabilities in the PHP programming language, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said Thursday. Kihara said the government will continue to issue warnings about the problem. He called on citizens to install security patches to address the vulnerabilities, adding that temporarily taking websites offline is an effective measure if patches cannot be applied. Government agencies, including the health and finance ministries, are taking their websites offline, he added. Also on Thursday, the Japan Agency for Local Authority Information Systems, responsible for issuing My Number identification cards, said it has temporarily taken offline a website providing information on how to apply for the cards. The move is a precautionary maintenance measure following the discovery of the PHP flaw, and no damage has been confirmed so far, the agency said. A separate website used to apply for My Number cards and the Mynaportal website for My Number-related administrative tasks are operating as usual. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and Takayuki Kobayashi, policy chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, took their personal websites offline because of the PHP vulnerabilities. Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama’s website was also inaccessible. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
