By UPDATE:
Good news! CitSci.org is back online, and all services have been restored.
Earlier today, we temporarily took CitSci.org offline as a precaution following the discovery of critical security vulnerabilities in PHP, a programming language used by millions of websites worldwide. Government agencies and other organizations around the world took similar precautions while security updates were released.
While many websites simply applied the patch and restarted their server, we took this vulnerability very seriously knowing that uncertainty in scientific data could undermine the mission of your projects. The whole team was all hands on deck. Developers checked the database and system logs to ensure integrity of project data, and found no indication of compromise. We also rotated all security keys out of an abundance of caution. Our team came together to look out for the best interest of Participatory Science.
Our team has now applied the necessary security updates, addressed the vulnerabilities, and confirmed that CitSci.org is ready to resume normal operations.
Users can once again access their projects, submit observations, manage data, and use CitSci.org as usual.
Thank you for your patience and understanding while we worked to protect our platform and the citizen science community that relies on it.
We’re happy to be back!
The CitSci.org Team
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ARCHIVED:
CitSci.org will be temporarily offline today, October 21, while our team addresses a newly disclosed security vulnerability affecting websites around the world.
On October 20, developers of PHP, a programming language widely used to power websites, announced two critical security vulnerabilities. The discovery has prompted government agencies and organizations across Europe and beyond to temporarily take their websites offline as a precaution while security updates are implemented.
We are taking the same precautionary approach to protect CitSci.org and the community that relies on it.
During this temporary outage, users may be unable to access CitSci.org, submit observations, manage projects, or download data.
Our team is working to implement the necessary security updates and verify that our systems are safe before restoring access. We hope to bring CitSci.org back online as soon as possible, but protecting our community and its research data is our first priority.
We appreciate your patience and understanding. We will share updates as more information becomes available.
Learn more: Reuters – Government websites go dark as software flaw sparks security scramble
Thank you for being part of the CitSci community!
The CitSci.org Team
