All Isle of Man school websites are back online today (Thursday) after being taken down as a precaution amid international cyber security warnings.

However, five other Government websites remain offline while urgent security updates are applied to address identified vulnerabilities.

The Isle of Man Government confirmed the latest update on Thursday morning, with the Isle of Man Post Office, iMuseum, Read the Signs, live traffic and road information, and Isle of Man Legislation websites still unavailable.

The Government said the sites would remain offline while the necessary work was completed and apologised for any inconvenience caused.

It added that it would provide a further update once the work was finished.

The latest development follows international warnings about two critical vulnerabilities discovered in PHP, a programming language widely used to run websites and connect them to databases.

On Wednesday, the NCSC urged organisations using PHP to prepare to update their systems as soon as security fixes became available.

It also advised organisations unable to address the vulnerabilities immediately to consider taking affected systems offline until they could be secured.

The flaws were discovered by cyber security researchers using artificial intelligence, according to reports, and could potentially allow attackers to gain access to systems and data.

The warnings have prompted organisations in several countries to take precautionary measures while security updates are applied.

The Isle of Man Government has not confirmed whether each affected website was running a vulnerable version of PHP, nor has it said that any of its systems have been compromised.

No timeframe has yet been given for when the remaining websites will return.