"There is no evidence that this was malicious." - Eircom spokesperson commenting after the ISP had been breached by crackers last Wednesday.
"It (the service breakdown) has been a major problem for business people around the country From a business point of view, if we want to encourage people to engage in e-commerce it's very difficult to build up trust in the Internet if people don't feel they can trust the information they put on it is secure." - Chambers of Commerce of Ireland spokesman Malcolm Byrne claiming the incident had set back efforts by the State's chambers to encourage the use of e-commerce. "It's easy to sensationalise this, but hacking is a reality of Internet life. We took a preemptive strike to ensure no damage was done." - The Eircom spokesperson in response.
News monitor column compiled by Conor Pope. Computimes edited by Conor Goodman and Conor Pope
The full text of Computimes reports is available on The Irish Times web site at www.ireland.com