South Africa has temporarily shut down the official website of its Presidency as a precaution following a global cybersecurity threat targeting internet servers running vulnerable versions of the PHP programming language.
The Presidency announced the decision on Friday, October 23, 2026, explaining that the website would remain inaccessible while security measures were put in place to protect its systems. However, officials did not reveal the specific nature of the threat or indicate when the website would return to normal operation.
In a public notice, the Presidency informed visitors that the disruption was part of a precautionary response to the cybersecurity incident.
“The Presidency website is temporarily unavailable as a precautionary measure in response to a global cybersecurity event,” the statement said, apologising for the inconvenience and thanking the public for its patience as the necessary work continued.
Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya told Reuters that officials had found no indication of a security breach. He explained that the shutdown was a preventive step rather than a response to a confirmed attack, noting that cybersecurity warnings can disrupt the normal operation of websites.
The decision followed emergency security updates released by the PHP development team on Wednesday, October 21, to address two critical vulnerabilities. The flaws could allow attackers to execute malicious code on affected servers without needing to log in, potentially giving them access to systems running vulnerable software.
The disclosures prompted governments and businesses around the world to review their digital infrastructure and apply the necessary security fixes. Some online services were taken offline as organisations worked to reduce the risk of attacks.
The incident has also triggered millions of hacking attempts, highlighting the potential scale of the threat and the challenges organisations face when vulnerabilities affect widely used internet technology.
PHP remains one of the key programming languages supporting websites and online services. It powers a significant portion of the public web and supports popular content management platforms, including WordPress, Drupal and Joomla.
Because many websites rely on these systems, security weaknesses in PHP can expose a large number of online services to potential attacks if administrators fail to install available updates.
PHP developers urged users to apply the emergency fixes immediately after releasing them on Wednesday. Organisations running affected versions must update their systems to reduce the risk of attackers exploiting the vulnerabilities.
The South African Presidency has not provided further details about the measures being implemented or announced a date for restoring public access to its website.