Company denies employee hacked clients The Sydney company that employed the self-proclaimed leader of an international hacking ring says he didn't target any of its clients. Matthew Flannery, 24, was working with the company as an overnight IT help-desk assistant for a US firm when he allegedly broke into and defaced an Australian government website. He was arrested on Tuesday at the offices of Content Security at North Ryde, in northwestern Sydney, where he was a probationary employee, after a two-week intelligence-led investigation by Australian Federal Police. The alleged hacker, known by the online handle Aush0k, was already being monitored by overseas police and is accused of breaking into a federal government website earlier this month. Flannery, from Point Clare on the NSW Central Coast, is alleged to have altered data on the site and posted an image on its front page. He was charged with three counts of hacking activity - offences carrying a maximum combined penalty of 12 years in jail. Police refused to identify the website concerned, which is believed to belong to a state or local government agency. On Thursday a spokesman for Content Security said its clients were not targeted by the alleged hacker. "There's no concern that any of his activities were targeting clients of Content Security," he said. There is no way that he could have breached any of Content Security's information, he did not have access to that network. In terms of complicated and sensitive client data, that's all highly encrypted, highly protected and very few people in Content Security have any access to that. Content Security said in a statement on Wednesday that Flannery had been thoroughly vetted before being employed and did not use confidential data from within the company to carry out his alleged attack. Flannery will appear in Woy Woy Local Court on May 15.