Two people arrested by gardaí investigating a cyber attack on the Fine Gael website have been freed without charge.
During the attack, which took place in January, the site was modified and the personal information of 2,000 site subscribers was stolen and e-mailed to the media.
The attack was claimed at the time by international cyber-hacking group Anonymous.
Gardaí carried out two arrest and search operations in counties Galway and Offaly yesterday morning during which two teenagers were arrested.
The suspects were detained at their homes, from which the arresting officers took computers for examination.
The computers were analysed by technical experts attached to the Garda Computer Crime Unit in the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation. A number of other digital media items, such as storage sticks, were also taken for examination.
The teenager arrested in Offaly is 18 and his family has links to one of the mainstream political parties. However, he and the suspect detained in Galway are believed to be linked to left-wing political groups and to the Anonymous organisation.
The two suspects were last night being held at Tullamore and Galway Garda stations under section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act.
Fine Gael contacted gardaí in January after media outlets were e-mailed by someone claiming to be from Anonymous and claiming to have attacked the party’s site.
The following message was posted by the hackers: “Nothing is safe, you put your faith in this political party and they take no measures to protect you. They offer you free speech yet they censor your voice. Wake up!”
A file containing personal information – including IP addresses, mobile phone numbers, e-mail addresses and comments left on the website by some 2,000 members of the public – was then forwarded to the media by e-mail from someone purporting to belong to the Anonymous group.
The sender claimed the site was attacked because comments submitted “were being censored”.
The Anonymous group is a loose umbrella organisation of computer-literate activists who organise attacks on websites. It has most recently been associated with attacks on companies that have moved against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.