One of two Irish students charged with computer hacking by the FBI has been released from Garda custody without charge having been arrested for questioning yesterday.
Donncha O'Cearrbhail (19), Birr, Co Offaly, was charged in US court documents today with one count of computer hacking conspiracy.
The Trinity College, Dublin student is also accused of hacking into a garda's personal email and sourcing information on a conference call between US authorities and gardaí in which the hacking group Anonymous was discussed. He is alleged to have recorded the call and distributed the recording to others.
A Garda spokesman confirmed tonight that a person in his late teens had been released without charge this morning having been arrested yesterday. A file is being prepared for the DPP.
A second Irish student, Darren Martyn of Galway, is cited in the US court documents as being 25 years old, although this is disputed on a Twitter feed purportedly created by him, saying this is "6 years off the mark", making him 19.
Mr Martyn has not been questioned by gardaí but has been charged in the US with two counts of computer hacking conspiracy.
The FBI have alleged that the two Irish men, along with three others, were aligned with the Anonymous group and other related groups. The other individuals were named as UK residents Ryan Ackroyd and Jake Davis, and US resident Jeremy Hammond.
It said Hector Xavier Monsegur (28) from New York, had pleaded guilty on August 15th, 2011, to a series of computer hacking charges and admitted to being a member of the Anonymous group and affiliated groups Internet Feds and LulzSec. The guilty plea was kept secret until yesterday..
It is alleged that between December 2010 and June 2011 the groups deliberately overwhelmed websites, include Visa, MasterCard and PayPal, with the intention of temporarily crashing them and denying services to their customers in retaliation for the companies' refusal to process donations to WikiLeaks. An attack on the Fine Gael website is also included in the indictment papers unsealed in New York yesterday.
It is further alleged the groups hacked the computer systems used by Fox Broadcasting, from which confidential data relating to more than 70,000 potential contestants on X Factor were stolen.
Efforts to contact Mr O'Cearrbhail and Mr Martyn today were unsuccessful.