Latvian state websites being restored after cyber precautions, but some services still unavailable
State and municipal websites shut down over critical PHP vulnerabilities are gradually coming back online in Latvia. Resources such as "rindapiearsta.lv" and "likumi.lv" are still not fully available.
Latvia is gradually restoring the state and municipal websites that were taken offline on Wednesday evening after critical security vulnerabilities were discovered globally in the PHP programming language. However, several resources important to the public, including the National Health Service (NVD) portal "rindapiearsta.lv" and the legislation site "likumi.lv", are still not fully available.
What happened
On Wednesday, access was suspended to the unified website platform (TVP), which hosts the pages of 165 state institutions and municipalities. The preventive step was taken to shield the resources from cyberattacks, since the vulnerabilities allow an unauthenticated attacker to execute commands on the affected system. Cert.lv, Latvia's IT security incident response institution, says about 6,000 resources in the country could potentially be affected. Most of them belong to the private sector, so companies are urged to check their systems immediately and install available security updates.
Progress of recovery
Cert.lv reports that around 95% of important state digital resources have already applied the updates and are fully accessible from Latvia. For most affected resources, access from abroad could be restored by Monday, 26 October, although the exact timing depends on how updates are rolled out and on the results of checks. So far there is no information about successful attacks on Latvian information systems using these vulnerabilities. Residents abroad who use Latvian mobile operators can access resources without problems; in other cases Cert.lv advises contacting the relevant service provider.
What is still down
The official publisher "Latvijas Vēstnesis" says "lv.lv" has been restored and "vestnesis.lv" is partly available, with issues since 1 January 2012 readable. Work continues on "likumi.lv", "lvportals.lv" and "juristavards.lv". Because additional obstacles emerged while updating "likumi.lv", consolidated versions of the most viewed legal acts will for now be published in PDF format on "likumi.lv".
The NVD portal "rindapiearsta.lv" remains offline because of cybersecurity risks. Information on waiting lists for state-funded outpatient services is available on the NVD website as a downloadable Excel file. Current data can also be obtained from a medical facility's front desk or via the NVD free information line 80001234.
