PHP2Shell: Why Websites Went Offline and What Crypto Users Must Do Now

On October 21, government portals, news sites and crypto-related pages across Europe went dark within hours of each other. No hack took them down. Their own admins pulled the plug, on purpose, because of two critical bugs in PHP nicknamed PHP2Shell. This one hit close to home for me. I am Dutch, I have a DigiD, and I have family in Denmark, so both headlines landed in my group chats before they landed in the news. In this post I explain what happened, what did not happen, and why every airdrop farmer should tighten up this week. What Is PHP2Shell?