The Justice Department would like to set the record straight -- AmbertAlert.gov, the federal website that handles alerts about abducted children, is back up and running despite the government shutdown.

"The Amber Alert system was never interrupted, but to eliminate any confusion, the informational site maintained by the Justice Department has been restored," Justice Department spokesman Brian Fallon told CNN.

To further clarify, the website for the Office of Justice Programs, which hosts Amber Alert information, has been "shut down" due to funding issues, a senior Justice Department official told CNN.

"The official told CNN that the website is informational only, detailing the department's role in providing training to states on how to have an Amber Alert system, and that the alerts themselves were not affected. Amber Alerts are issued jurisdictionally, by county or state, the official said, adding that the Amber Alert system, which consists largely of press notifications, highways signs, and tweets, is functional and not affected by the shutdown."

What does the AmberAlert.gov website link to?

It links to that of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, CNN reports.

"The AMBER Alert Program is a voluntary partnership between law-enforcement agencies, broadcasters, transportation agencies, and the wireless industry, to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child-abduction cases. The goal of an AMBER Alert is to instantly galvanize the entire community to assist in the search for and the safe recovery of the child," according to AmberAlert.gov.

"The Office of Justice Programs had the funds to run through Friday," October 4, after which it "furloughed all of employees. So since they couldn't staff and monitor those websites, they were put behind a firewall so as to keep from hacking or security issues," Fallon told CNN.

"If there isn't a Justice Department employee working to monitor the sites, Fallon added, "it's a cyber-security risk for sites to be posted but not maintained or supervised. We had to bring in a furloughed employee to re-open the site," Fallon explained, adding that it's "unclear if we will have the funds to monitor" the site.

What sparked the Justice Department to move so quickly on the matter?

"The decision was made, a senior Justice Department official said, because there was a 'public safety worry because of incorrect reporting that the program itself was down,' as opposed to just the federal website."

According to the Ambert Plan Statistics, 656 successful recoveries, 120 plans nationwide, 53 statewide, 29 regional and 38 local.

Last Year, the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) welcomed Google into the AMBER alert network to provide real-time AMBER Alert updates to users of Google Map and Google Search features. 

Amber stands for "America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response," CNN adds. "The program was named after 9-year-old Amber Hagerman who in 1996 was abducted and murdered in Arlington, Texas. Her case remains unsolved."