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Alleged hacker Ryan Cleary out on bail

The 19-year-old alleged hacker has been electronically tagged, according to reports, and can only leave his home when one of his parents is with him.

Don Reisinger
CNET contributor Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has covered everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Besides his work with CNET, Don's work has been featured in a variety of other publications including PC World and a host of Ziff-Davis publications.
Don Reisinger
2 min read

Ryan Cleary, the alleged hacker who was arrested last week and subsequently charged in the U.K. with five counts of hacking, has been released from jail.

Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith granted Cleary bail today but imposed some limitations on the 19-year-old. According to the U.K.'s Mirror, Cleary has a 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time curfew. He has also been electronically tagged and will not be allowed to leave his home without the company of at least one of his parents. Cleary is also not allowed to access the Internet or have any products allowing him to go online.

Cleary was arrested last week in the U.K. following an investigation into a series of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. Reports initially claimed that Cleary was a member of LulzSec, a hacking group that apparently disbanded over the weekend after spending 50 days attacking PBS, Sony, and the CIA, among others. However, LulzSec last week denied Cleary's alleged involvement with its group, saying that he only hosted "one of our many legitimate chat rooms on the IRC server."

British authorities have stopped short of linking Cleary to LulzSec, but they did charge the teenager with launching DDoS attacks against the Serious Organized Crime Agency, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, and the British Phonographic Industry.

Over the weekend, Cleary was granted bail by the U.K. court but remained in custody following a prosecution appeal. This time around, the prosecution once again appealed Cleary's bail, but the judge struck it down.

According to the BBC, Cleary's attorneys have said in court that he has a form of autism known as Asperger's syndrome, as well as agoraphobia.

In a statement before the court today, Cleary's mother said that her son is her "life," the Mirror reported.

"I'm his best friend as well as his mother because he's reclusive," she said, according to the Mirror.