John Mooney, security correspondent for The Sunday Times, first published the story alleging that GSOC had been the subject of surveillance by an unidentified party using "government level technology" to hack into its emails, Wi-Fi and telephone systems.
[5] The United Kingdom's GCHQ and other intelligence services in the past have collected information concerning actions taken by the Irish government, and a second unauthorised spoofing Wi-Fi network discovered at GSOC's head office was traced back to the UK, however it is believed that was a deliberate act to hide the culprit's tracks.
According to journalist John Mooney, he linked the bugging operation to GSOC's investigation of the Garda handling of the Kieran Boylan case, a convicted drug-runner who was assisted by Gardaí in obtaining a passport, a haulage licence and had a prosecution for drug offences annulled in extraordinary circumstances.
[10] A number of weeks after news of the bugging at GSOC broke, on 25 March 2014, Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan resigned citing "early retirement" after it was believed the government lost confidence in his leadership and wanted a fresh face to head the force.
[12] Questions had been raised about the unusual and potentially conflicting occurrence of a Minister holding not only both the Justice and Defence portfolios (housing the two main intelligence services of the state), but also in charge of both the Gardaí and the watchdog whose sole responsibility it is to investigate them.