The British Independent Retailers Association (Bira) has alerted its members and other small businesses to the risks highlighted today by the international compromise of websites that has arisen as a result of AI research into online security.
The flaws relate to PHP, a popular general-purpose scripting language used in the creation of websites. Essentially, it’s a code that forms part of the web and the sites on it, and is something ‘unseen’ by its general users.
Organisations around the world are now trying to fix the cyber-security flaw that could affect millions of websites, with hundreds of thousands of hacking attempts already reported by internet infrastructure platform, Cloudflare.
Bira is advising retailers to speak to their web developer or hosting provider as a priority. Andrew Goodacre, CEO of Bira, said: “This is a serious warning and one that independent retailers should not ignore.
”Many small shops now rely on their website to take orders, show stock and stay in touch with customers, and a large number of those sites run on PHP without the owner ever knowing it. We have said many times that no business is too small to be targeted by cyber criminals, and that’s very much the case here.”
Goodacre added: ”You don’t need to be a tech expert to protect your busines. Simply contact whoever built or hosts your site and ask them to confirm that PHP has been updated to the latest fixed version.
“If your site is running an older version that’s no longer supported, now is the time to get it upgraded. It’s a quick conversation that could save a great deal of trouble.”
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