A number of NI councils are among those hit by a cyber security issue leaving some services unavailable.

Statements have been made by both Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon Council as well as Ards and North Down Council.

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A notice on the National Cyber Security Centre website warning of a critical security issue affecting PHP. A critical flaw in the programming language PHP was revealed “earlier than it was supposed to have been”, which mean hackers started checking websites to see if they could exploit the vulnerability, an expert has said. Some “limited” Government services may temporarily be offline while work is carried out to address potential cybersecurity issues, Downing Street has said. Organisations around the world have been scrambling to fix a critical security flaw in the programming language PHP used by the majority of websites. Picture date: Thursday October 22, 2026.

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A UK Government minister Baroness Lloyd of Effra said in the House of Lords: “Thirty-two government services are unavailable and four are partially unavailable amid the PHP cyber security issue.”

According to the BBC Downing Street says "no large public-facing critical services are being affected", but some "limited services may temporarily be offline" to apply fixes.

Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon Borough Council said: “We are currently experiencing disruption to a number of council services due to a widespread third-party system outage affecting Idox Customer Portal, which supports a range of online services across councils in the UK.

"As a result, the following services are temporarily unavailable:

Building Control inspections
Property certificates
Environmental Health services
Dog licensing
Bin sales
Bulky waste collections

"Every effort is being made by the system provider to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

"It is anticipated that normal services will be progressively restored throughout today and tomorrow.

"Whilst this issue is beyond our control, we recognise the inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your patience and understanding while normal services are being restored,” said a council spokesperson.

Ards and North Down Borough Council said: “Due to a widespread cybersecurity vulnerability affecting organisations globally, some Council systems and services may experience temporary disruption while essential security measures and updates are implemented.

"Protecting our systems and the information we hold is our priority. We are working to minimise any impact and restore normal service as quickly as possible.”