Students admit hacking FG website as ‘stunt’

Two students have admitted hacking Fine Gael’s website in the weeks leading up to the 2011 general election as a “stunt” to embarrass the party.

Computer experts Darren Martyn, aged 21, from Cloonbeggin, Claregalway, Galway, and Donncha Ó Cearrbhaíl, aged 20, from The Ring, Birr, Co Offaly, are the first to be successfully prosecuted in Ireland for comp-uter hacking and will be sentenced in October.

The two, who used the online aliases Raepsauce and Palladium, had been identified by the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation in conjunction with the FBI, Dublin District Court heard.