It’s been decades since Australian hackers first started breaching the security of government databases, financial institutions, and private information.
The motives that drive these hackers to pursue this line of work vary from hacker to hacker. Not all of them are after controversial information or an organization’s secrets. A lot of hackers commit identity theft; others may wreak havoc by tampering with sewerage networks and letting out a flood of sewage! There’s no end to the extents these hackers can go to.
Here are a few cases of Australian hacking geniuses who still couldn’t outsmart the authorities.
Vitek Boden
Boden was the infamous hacker behind dumping volumes of raw sewage into waterways and public spaces. He hacked into the Maroochy Shire Council systems in Queensland on Sunshine Coast in 2000 and released a flood of sewage into the city.
He was subjected to 2 years of prison time. After much digging, it was revealed that Boden was actually rejected by the council as a job candidate his hacking job was an attempt to seek revenge.
Optik Surfer
Skeeve Stevens, aka Optik Surfer, was the man who stole the credit card information of 1200 AUSNet subscribers and published them in April 1995.
The hacker made a case for himself by saying that his aim was to unveil the shortcomings of AUSNet’s system, but the court gave him a 3-year jail term for his misdoings. At the time, 3 years was the longest record of prison time assigned to any cybercriminal.
Peter John Clark
Clark broke into the security system of the University of New South Wales to gain unauthorized access to private emails, documents, and university PCs from home. It’s still a mystery why Clark breached the university’s system, because according to the record, he wasn’t even enrolled in the institute. The case dates back to 1993, when Clark was punished with a $3000 fine and a 3-year long bond of decency.
Mendax
Julian Assange, who was more popularly known as Mendax, was held accountable for multiple attacks on international databases, companies, and online networks. A few notable victims of his hacking included NASA, the US Navy, numerous Australian universities, the Pentagon, and many others!
He was fined with $1200 and bound with a good behavior agreement. Spending his teen years hacking in the suburbs of Melbourne, Mendax illegally accessed Nortel telecommunications in 1991. However, he saved himself from a jail sentence because of a troubled childhood history.
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