A review of government websites in Northern Ireland is to be undertaken after some were disabled when a hacker attempted to crash them.
The websites were shut down for several days after being targeted over a weekend at the beginning of the month, it was revealed today.
No information was lost or damaged as a result of the hacker's actions, according to a spokesman.
The websites - including that of the Planning Service which handles planning applications made across all of Northern Ireland's 26 council areas - are now running again.
A spokesman said: "Over the weekend of February 2nd-3rd, 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 the Planning Service's."
Stormont Environment Minister Arlene Foster said: "It is very concerning to hear of people being able to hack into government sites, it is something the government will have to review, have to look at very seriously."