How one man became the unsung hero of the internet during a cyber-security scramble

BBC

For more than 20 years, Ondřej Surý has been quietly helping to keep websites around the world running securely, largely in his spare time.

He voluntarily maintains software for two of the most popular versions of Linux, a free operating system similar to Windows, which are often used on web servers.

Typically, this involves keeping them up-to-date with the latest version of PHP, a programming language which underpins a significant number of the world's websites.

This week, he became very busy indeed.

With the help of AI, two major cyber-security flaws were identified in the programming language, leading the PHP Foundation to release fixes.

But average folk may struggle to understand how to install these onto their systems - so Surý, for free, dropped everything to convert the fixes into packages, which can be easily installed without expertise.

"The feeling is like I am responsible for all these people and I…