KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Jamaica Information Service says five websites hosted by the organisation were also defaced after last night’s breach of its system.

The websites are the Culture, Health, Arts, Sports and Education (CHASE) Fund, GC Foster College, Social Development Commission (SDC), Houses of Parliament and Jamaica National Commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

The GC Foster College website has been successfully restored and the others are expected to be restored shortly, JIS says.

Probable Islamic State militants hacked into the website last evening, forcing a shutdown of the site.

Up to 10:00 pm Monday, people who visited the site came upon a message which read:

“Hacked by Team System Dz: I am Muslim & I love jihad. I love Islamic state (heart)”

The message also stated: “Message to all the peoples of the world and especially to governments, Islamic State List to restore the rights of Muslims who have been killed by your governments savage and unjust, Islamic state will restore dignity for Muslims. Will purge the land of the Muslims from the hypocrites infidels. It intervenes you will equip you to dwell in cemeteries. Op USA & Israel. Hackers Islamic State/.2015” Facebook”.

By 10:00 pm, the landing page for the website was blank, except for a message stating “hacked by holako”.

JIS reports that technical problems were experienced on the website between 9:02 pm and 9:38 pm.  It was taken offline for maintenance shortly thereafter.

The government agency says its web team conducted restoration and recovery procedures within four hours.

Preliminary findings reveal that the attempts of the “hactivists” at breaching the system did not result in access to sensitive information but was constrained to “surface defacement.”  The Agency is confirming that no data was corrupted.

Cyber security teams from the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and the Technology Ministry are assisting the web team with the investigations.