Websites Go Offline, Protests in France, Netflix Downsizes
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AI discovered a vulnerability in part of the internet's architecture, called PHP2SHELL. Security researchers rushed to fix it, but the news leaked and hackers have swooped in. France deploys hordes of police as another wave of protests begin. Netflix is regrouping after the release of its latest quarterly earnings this week.
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A.I. found a flaw in the code that runs most internet servers. Businesses and governments around the world scrambled to fix it this week before hackers got there. I'm Aishiraska. And I'm Scott Simon and this is up first from NPR News. A really bad weekend cybersecurity showed us how much of the internet is vulnerable to powerful A.I. Online authorities in France hope to avoid more vandalism and looting this weekend with hordes of police officers while young people in France continue to demand better schools. And mass layoffs at Netflix as viewers turn to YouTube and TikTok. So please stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your weekend. Stay tuned for the following announcements and messages from our sponsors. Support for NPR's 2026 midterm election coverage and the following message come from Made in Cookware. President and co-founder Jay Kalick shares why he was inspired by his family's fourth generation kitchen supply business. Growing up in a commercial kitchen at home really opened my eyes to bringing what was cool in restaurants into your home. And when you think about what we do today, we are asking these chefs for product ideas. We are designing products together with them that we then realize a home cook can use as well. Learn more about Made in Cookware at M-A-D-E-I-N cookware.com. This message comes from zero, a powerful platform built for small business owners that makes managing business finances easier. In fact, 91% of customers agree zero is easy to use, accounting, payments, payroll and analytics and one connected platform. In 5 million customers worldwide who love using zero, learn more at X-E-R-O.com. The 91% claim is based on a 2024 zero survey conducted in the U.S., U.K. and Australia. This message comes from Capital One with the Venture X Card. Earn unlimited double miles and a $300 annual Capital One travel credit. Capital One. What's in your wallet? In terms of supply, details at CapitalOne.com. Internet security researchers made a startling discovery two months ago of vulnerability in the cold that most of our servers use. They tried to keep it secret as they raced to fix it, but that didn't stop chaos from spreading across the Internet over the past couple of days. Kevin Rusch is the co-ops to the new podcast from NPR about AI called Machine Gods. Kevin, thanks for being with us. Thanks for having me, Scott. Which happened? Well, we found out this week that there was a big bug in a very important piece of decades old software called PHP. Now for non-technical people, PHP runs on something like 70% of the websites on the Internet, and this week we learned it had two flaws that would let someone take over any computer that was running a website without a password and without leaving any fingerprints. So basically imagine that 70% of the doors in the world ran on the same locks, and then we figured out that there was a way to pry open that lock and get in, and we need a bunch of new locks for a bunch of doors.
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