Japan to Use AI to Simulate Cyberattacks After PHP Bug Hits Millions of Websites
Japan announced plans to establish a team utilizing artificial intelligence to simulate cyberattacks, aiming to identify and address critical vulnerabilities in PHP, a programming language used by nearly 70 percent of the world’s websites. This initiative follows widespread service disruptions across Japan, affecting major companies and government agencies, triggered by these PHP vulnerabilities, as reported by Economy Minister Ryosei Akazawa.
A significant vulnerability in PHP, a foundational programming language, led to widespread disruptions for Japanese companies and government services. Affected entities included SoftBank, which temporarily suspended its emergency alert system, All Nippon Airways, and the Ministry of Finance. This issue was not confined to Japan, with government services in the UK, France, Netherlands, and Denmark also experiencing outages, underscoring the broad impact of the flaw.
Japan's Economy Minister Ryosei Akazawa stated that the new AI initiative will help defenders "think from the perspective of the attacker" to proactively respond to threats. This strategic shift acknowledges that traditional defense mechanisms may be insufficient against increasingly complex threats, prompting the need for AI-driven simulation to identify and address critical vulnerabilities.
The severity of the PHP vulnerability is highlighted by cybersecurity firms. OpenAI, Calif, and Google-owned Wiz reported using frontier AI models, including GPT-5.6 Sol and Gemini 4 Argon, to identify the critical flaw. Wiz noted that the underlying issues had existed for decades, but demonstrating their exploitability required an "exceptionally complex chain of steps" that AI models substantially reduced, turning a long-standing flaw into an active exploit.
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