Irish Hacking Suspect Freed in Wake of FBI Sting

By Shawn Pogatchnik

Dublin -  An Irish computer hacker accused of breaking into the email account of Ireland's top cybersecurity cop, then using its contents to eavesdrop on American and British anti-hacking detectives, was released without charges Wednesday.

Irish police said they were preparing a new evidence file for state prosecutors to use against Donncha O Cearbhaill. He's been arrested and released once before over alleged hacking attacks in Ireland last year.

FBI affidavits identified the 19-year-old Trinity College chemistry student as the Internet infiltrator responsible for recording and posting online a Jan. 17 trans-Atlantic conference call between American and British anti-hacking detectives.

The U.S. District Court in Manhattan, acting on FBI affidavits, issued indictments Tuesday against O Cearbhaill, two Britons, another Irishman and a Chicago man over their alleged role in a string of cyber attacks on several U.S. agencies and companies committed by an Anonymous hacker subgroup called Lulz Security, or LulzSec. The FBI built its case using the hackers' alleged leader, Sabu, as a turncoat informant who drew out incriminating online admissions from the others.

Hackers claiming allegiance to the amorphous Anonymous movement offered a defiant reply Wednesday by defacing dozens of Web sites connected to Internet defense firm Panda Security. The Anonymous activists justified their attacks citing Panda's links to law enforcement. The Bilbao, Spain-based company said its main site wasn't compromised.

Hackers from Anonymous also said they knocked out the Vatican's Web site Wednesday afternoon in a broad protest against Catholic doctrine, past and present, as well as the chronic cover-up of child abuse by clergy.

O Cearbhaill walked free from Terenure police station in south Dublin after a 24-hour interrogation period, the maximum permitted under Irish law for suspected hacking crimes.

Such releases are typical in Ireland, where state prosecutors can take months, even years, to mull whether to file charges.

He made no public comments following his release. His father John Carroll, a councilman in rural County Offaly, also declined comment.

The other Irish citizen indicted, Galway university student Darren Martyn, remained free Wednesday and conversed freely with followers on his Twitter account, in which he describes himself as a reformed "blackhat," slang for a criminal hacker.

Martyn said the FBI had got his age wrong — he's also just 19, not 25 — and he intended to keep working on his own Internet and school projects in expectation of potentially imminent arrest. He declined AP requests for an interview.

The U.S. court has indicted Martyn on two counts of hacking, with a potential 10-year prison sentence for each count, while O Cearbhaill faces one count of hacking and one count of disclosing an unlawfully intercepted wire communication, offenses that combined carry a maximum 15-year sentence.

Irish police arrested both O Cearbhaill and Martyn in September after their online noms de guerre claimed responsibility for a hacking attack on the Web site of Fine Gael, the major political party in Ireland's government. They were both released and files of evidence prepared for their potential prosecution, but they have yet to be charged over the Fine Gael attack.

According to the affidavit by FBI Special Agent George Schultzel, O Cearbhaill decided to crack the email codes of his recent police captors.

While Schultzel doesn't identify them by name, he testified that O Cearbhaill was able to crack into the private email accounts of two detectives in the Irish police's Computer Crime Investigation Unit, including its commander — and found a security gold mine because both detectives had been forwarding security-sensitive emails from their police accounts.

The FBI said it seized records of both Irish detectives' email accounts and found they'd been illegally accessed 146 times.

The affidavit reports that O Cearbhaill told his LulzSec contact Sabu Jan. 9 he had "just got into the iCloud for the head of a national cybercrime unit. I have all his contacts and can track his location 24/7." In a footnote, Schultzel identifies O Cearbhaill's target as the Irish police's cybercrime supervisor.

The Associated Press requested an interview Wednesday with the Computer Crime Investigation Unit's director, Detective Inspector Paul Gillen. He and the police force declined the request, citing their ongoing investigation.

The FBI affidavit suggests Gillen shipped a key email from the FBI — listing the invited officials and phone passwords for their Jan. 17 conference call — from his police email account to his private one.

The 15-minute discussion, and the list of security officials, both were leaked on to the Internet. In one telling moment, an FBI official asked about progress on investigating the two Irish hackers, O Cearbhaill and Martyn: "Is anyone on from Ireland?" Silence followed.

Internet security experts said they found it hard to believe that the head of a nation's cybersecurity unit would ship such a sensitive email to a poorly protected private account, then not bother to participate in the conference call.

"It's obviously deeply embarrassing," said Graham Cluley, a technology consultant for data security company Sophos. "It's a boo-boo. I would hope that more sensitive information isn't being shared via his personal account."

IRA Admits Role in Death of Nine-Year-Old Boy in 1973

Dublin, Ireland - After stating the death of a nine-year-old boy was the deed of the British army for decades, the infamous Irish Republican Army, or IRA, officially apologized for the death of Gordon Gallagher.

Gordon was a nine-year-old who accidentally stepped on a bomb in his parents' yard, leading to his death.

His father, Billy, said of the apology "I am glad they take full responsibility and accept that they were to blame and no one else," a reference to when two unknown IRA members approached him and said they planted the bomb but without a detonator. Instead they insisted British soldiers added it on in an attempt to make the IRA look bad. Billy says he "Never believed that for a second."


The admission and apology comes after Gordon's parents asked Martin McGuinness, a former IRA commander in Londonderry, to tell them who planted the bomb and why.  McGuiness didn't fulfill the request short of admitting it was the act of the IRA. He himself was in jail at the time.

EU Blames Iceland for Collapse of "Mackerel War" Talks

European Union - The latest round of talks to try to resolve a dispute over mackerel fishing rights in the northeast Atlantic has ended in failure, with the EU's fisheries chief blaming Iceland and the Faroe Islands for their collapse.


Officials have so far held five rounds of talks to try to end the ongoing "mackerel war," which began in 2010 when Iceland increased its annual catch quota for the fish from around 2,000 tons to 130,000 tons.

Faroese mackerel catches have increased six-fold in the last two years to reach 150,000 tons in 2011.

The massive increase in quotas has brought both countries into conflict with fishermen from Scotland, Ireland and Norway, and threaten to derail Iceland's bid to join the 27-nation EU.

Last month, Iceland's economics minister said the dispute over fishing rights would probably be the biggest hurdle in the country's EU membership bid, which is losing support among Icelanders.

"It is particularly disappointing that neither Iceland nor the Faroe Islands really engaged in the negotiating process," EU fisheries chief Maria Damanaki said in a statement after the talks in Reykjavik.

"The Union and Norway call on Iceland and the Faroe Islands to reduce their current unsustainable fishing levels," she said. "We remain ready in the future to continue to seek a reasonable and fair quota sharing arrangement."

Iceland and the Faroe Islands have said the increase in their quotas is justified because warmer temperatures have caused migratory mackerel to swim further north than ever before into their waters.

For its part, the EU has threatened to stop Icelandic and Faroese fishermen from landing their catches at EU ports.

Anonymous Hacks FBI/Scotland Yard Calls

United States/Great Britain - Like a scene from a movie, the FBI and Scotland Yard were shown to be fools when it comes to hacking groups.

Anonymous, the infamous hacking group which has taken on credit card companies, cybersecurity firms, the Church of Scientology, and even the music industry, has taken on two of the world's top investigative agencies and won.

A 15 minute long recording has been released which revealed a plan to track and prosecute the collective hacking group and another, the lesser-known LulzSec.  Saying the hack "was intended for law enforcement officers only and was illegally obtained [and] a criminal investigation is under way to identify and hold accountable those responsible," the FBI has said it is unsure exactly how the hack happened.

It seems Anonymous somehow intercepted an email from an FBI agent to other law enforcement agencies throughout the world, including Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, and France.

So what's the conservation about? In case you don't have time to listen to it, it's about 15 minutes, I will sum it up for you.  They talk about two people who are supposedly linked to Anonymous - British citizens Ryan Cleary and Jake Davis - and the details they gathered against them and a few other unnamed suspects.

Ireland Takes Steps Against Puppy Mills

Ireland - After years of campaigning by animal rights groups the country has decided to make a step forward and stop unsanitary puppy mills.

Formerly known as the Puppy Farm of Europe, the country passed two laws known as the Dog Breeding Establishment Act and the Welfare of Greyhounds Act.

The legislation doesn't shut down all puppy mills, just the ones that are unregistered or have the dogs produced in horrible conditions not fit for a rat much less any animal bigger than one.  Veterinarians near puppy mills are required to inspect all of the ones currently in operation and if they find a place where the sanitary conditions are not met they are able to immediately shut down the kennels.

Breeders must also have all of their dogs microchipped so if the authorities trace the dog back to whoever bred them and prosecute them if needed.

Odd Stories: Lost Photo Album Recovered After 17 Years.

Gilford, Ireland – After being lost for almost two decades when a trailer was stolen, a wedding album suddenly reappeared at the home of its owners.

Nigel and Gillian Stewart recently celebrated their 25^th anniversary when the album reappeared, in a plastic bag and without explanation,at their house.

"I thought I was seeing things. I was absolutely stunned. Speechless," Gillian said about the event. She also said to the person who gave them back she was”extremely grateful” to them. To whomever stole them she said "You needn't be a bit afraid to come forward to me, because I bear no grudges. The past is the past, the future's the future. I would just love whoever it was to come forward, so I could thank them in person."