c2c has temporarily disabled its website and onboard Wi-Fi because of an emerging global cyber-security risk.
The operator, which runs trains between south Essex and London, is carrying out extra checks on its IT systems.
The shutdown comes as an AI-assisted researcher’s discovery of a "critical security issue" in a programming language prompts a wider warning to organisations in the UK and beyond.
A spokesman for c2c said: "As part of a review of our IT systems due to an emerging global cyber-security risk, we have temporarily disabled our website and onboard Wi-Fi while we carry out additional checks.
"We apologise for the inconvenience and are working to restore the service as soon as possible."
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The disruption follows warnings from cyber security experts about a critical vulnerability in PHP, a programming language used by nearly 70 per cent of websites.
The flaw, found with artificial intelligence, could let hackers remotely control affected web servers.
The impact is global, with the Finnish Government’s website and several UK council sites affected.
Some BBC programme pages have also been taken offline.
Some government online services may be disrupted, but the overall impact is expected to be limited and no major public-facing critical services are thought to be affected.
NCSC experts are working with OpenAI and partners around the world to tackle potential problems, a No 10 spokeswoman said. OpenAI technology was used to discover the vulnerabilities.
Matthew Prince, chief executive of cybersecurity firm Cloudflare, highlighted the scale of the threat on X (formerly Twitter), writing: "In the 10 hours before it was publicly announced, across the @Cloudflare network we saw thousands of attempts to exploit it.
"That jumped to tens of thousands in the 45 minutes post announcement, hundreds of thousands within 2 hours, and millions now."
The NCSC has advised organisations to install the fixed software and consider taking websites offline if they cannot upgrade immediately.
The US National Security Agency warned that weaknesses in the code could provide a direct path to a server's file system or database.
Websites taken offline included those belonging to Oxford City Council, the City of Edinburgh Council and the Office for Budget Responsibility.
Ryan Austin, a researcher at cybersecurity firm Calif, discovered the flaw in August using an OpenAI model, according to The Wall Street Journal.
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