Hacking suspect freed by police

Eircom believe no email or internet sites were tampered with

A 17-year-old youth is released after being arrested by Irish police investigating a major security breach at the Republic of Ireland's leading internet provider.

Gardai confirmed that the youth had been arrested on Sunday morning and taken to the force's station in Wicklow.

He had subsequently been released but a file is being prepared before being sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Ireland's largest internet provider, Eircom, was forced to change the passwords of 30,000 of its customers when the security breach was discovered last week.

The breach was the first major hacking operation to be uncovered in the Irish republic.

'No tampering'

Eircom has 240,000 internet subscribers and changed dial-in and email passwords for 30,000 customers were discovered.

A company spokeperson said the decision to change the passwords had been taken as a "precaution" and added that the company did not believe any customer mail or sites had been tampered with.

Eircom, which used to be the Republic's state telecommunications company, provides an internet subscription service through two subsidiary companies, Eircom Net and Indigo.