An official in northeast China's Jilin Province told China Daily yesterday that the municipal government's website had been offline since being hacked into on Saturday and local police have launched an investigation into the crime.

The director of Jilin Municipal Modernization Office, called Wang, said a hacker infiltrated the website (www.jlcity.gov.cn) on Saturday evening and left an unspecified message on it.

He said the hacker left no trace of his or her identity or of the reason why they had breached the website's security.

Nobody at the website administrator's office was on duty on Saturday, according to Wang, but staff will be on duty at weekends from now on.

"We have made recommendations to the municipal government many times to invest in website security," said Wang, but their calls have fallen on deaf ears.

Wang said the website has been out of operation since Sunday to allow local police to collect information for the investigation.

The main function of the website, established in the 1990s, is to make governmental information and notices public.

(China Daily December 20, 2005)