The British government advised the public on Friday to keep three days of emergency supplies at home, a message it said had been hammered home by this week’s PHP software glitch, as well as a record-setting summer of heat, drought and wildfires.
Governments and businesses worldwide have rushed to secure systems running the PHP programming language after flaws were disclosed on Wednesday, forcing some services offline and triggering millions of hacking attempts in one of the most significant cybersecurity incidents in recent years.
The British government said the internet outage showed the importance of its newly launched “Be Ready” campaign, which advises the public to keep three days of bottled water and non-perishable food in the house.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham, hosting a meeting on the response to wildfires, said that in the past Britain had been “on the back foot” responding to emergencies and that it needed to be more proactive.
The government announced a new wildfire response plan that includes deploying military aircraft.
Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said cyber incidents such as the PHP outage would become more common as AI made it easier to find ways to thwart traditional defences. He also cited risks from hostile states, organised criminals and climate change.
The UK was facing a greater level of threat “than we have certainly for most, if not all, of my lifetime”, he said during an appearance on the BBC’s ‘Question Time’ programme broadcast overnight.
Britain’s advice is similar to that issued by the European Commission, which told EU citizens last year to keep a 72-hour emergency kit containing supplies such as food, water, cash and power banks.