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| Hacker crashes government sites | Hacker crashes government sites |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| A hacker crashed a number of Northern Ireland government websites last week, BBC News has learnt. | A hacker crashed a number of Northern Ireland government websites last week, BBC News has learnt. |
| The websites, including the Planning Service's, were out of action for a number of days while the attack was investigated. | The websites, including the Planning Service's, were out of action for a number of days while the attack was investigated. |
| A Department of the Environment (DoE) spokesman said no information had been "lost or damaged" as a result of the hacker's activities. | A Department of the Environment (DoE) spokesman said no information had been "lost or damaged" as a result of the hacker's activities. |
| The Planning Service's website has now been reinstated. | The Planning Service's website has now been reinstated. |
| "Over the weekend of 2-3 February an attempt was made to hack into a web server, owned and maintained by the Northern Ireland Civil Service's IT Shared Service Centre, which hosts a number of government websites including Planning Service's," said the DoE spokeswoman. | "Over the weekend of 2-3 February an attempt was made to hack into a web server, owned and maintained by the Northern Ireland Civil Service's IT Shared Service Centre, which hosts a number of government websites including Planning Service's," said the DoE spokeswoman. |
| "The security systems in place identified this activity and the server was immediately shut down." | "The security systems in place identified this activity and the server was immediately shut down." |
| The Planning Service's website contains, among other things, information about planning applications being made across Northern Ireland's 26 council areas. | The Planning Service's website contains, among other things, information about planning applications being made across Northern Ireland's 26 council areas. |
| Environment Minister Arlene Foster said she only learned of the security breach on Monday night. | |
| "It is very concerning to hear of people being able to hack into government sites," she said. | |
| "Obviously it is something that the government will have to review, just as we did with our data. | |
| "This is another issue which we are going to have to look at very seriously." |