A new Government campaign recommends “small steps” for households, as 32 Government websites go offline while a critical flaw in the PHP programming language is fixed.
A new Government campaign has told households to “be ready” for a national crisis. Its checklist includes keeping three days of food and water, having enough cash to cope if the electronic payments system fails, and owning a wind-up or battery radio. The guidance is aimed at events such as wildfires, flooding and cyber attacks. It was announced as organisations worldwide rushed to fix a serious security flaw in PHP, a language used by most websites.
What the campaign recommends
The checklist of “small steps” also includes a power pack to charge devices if the electricity goes off. Speaking at the opening of the UK Gun Hall Plant in Telford, Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said the guidance would help people prepare for such emergencies.
“Are they prepared for the eventuality that there may be disruption to essential supply chains caused by hostile state actors or terrorists?” he asked. “How would we cope if the payment systems of the supermarkets went down? Those are the sorts of everyday challenges and threats we could well face, and it is right we ask the country to be ready for those things and ask everybody to do their bit.”
Security Minister Dan Jarvis said: “Those who can follow this advice should follow this advice.” He stressed that similar guidance had been issued in France, Ireland and the Netherlands.
“By taking simple steps to be ready for everyday emergencies like severe storms, people can reduce pressure on emergency services, helping them prioritise people who need more support in an emergency,” he said. “This is just the sort of community-focused campaign the UK needs to improve our resilience as a nation. It will bring us into line with European counterparts, where advice like this is a normal part of everyday life.”
The campaign follows comments last week by the head of the army, Sir Roly Walker, who said the Government needed to start a “frank conversation” with the public about the need to prepare for war.
The PHP security flaw
Downing Street said on Thursday that no large UK public-facing critical services had been affected by the PHP flaw. However, 32 Government websites have gone offline while the problems are resolved.
A No 10 spokeswoman said experts at the National Cyber Security Centre were working with OpenAI, whose technology was used to discover the vulnerabilities, and with partners around the world to address possible problems.
