Wild thing alleged Western Sydney Uni hacker has to do before release on bail
Kingswood woman and firmware engineer Birdie Kingston, 27, appeared via videolink in Parramatta Local Court on Friday, two days after being arrested on a string of serious charges relating to an alleged data breach at the institution.
Police opposed her release on bail citing the risk that she could gain access to cloud servers and delete evidence before investigating officers could access them, the court was told on Friday.
The former WSU student was arrested over a series of alleged cyber attacks spanning four years with police arguing she was driven by a grievance against the institution.
Police have alleged that from 2021 her cyber attacks escalated dramatically, from securing discounted parking and changing her grades before she last year threatened to release data onto the internet.
The court heard on Friday she allegedly demanded $80,000 in exchange for the stolen data.
She threatened to sell personal information on the dark web and it has been estimated that hundreds of university staff and students were affected, it has been alleged.
It's not alleged that the data was ever posted to the internet and the university did not pay the ransom.
She was first spoken to by police in 2023 but was not arrested until this week when she was charged with 20 offences.
She is facing 10 counts of accessing/modifying restricted data, four counts of unauthorised modification of data, two counts of unauthorised function with intent serious offence, possess data with intent to commit computer offence, dishonestly obtaining property by deception, dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception, attempting to dishonestly obtain financial advantage by deception and demand with menaces.
Police seized mobile phones and computers from her Kingswood apartment and are combing through mountains of data that is located on cloud servers belonging to Ms Kingston.
Ms Kingston appeared in Parramatta Local Court on Friday morning, dressed in the same sweater she was wearing when she was arrested on Wednesday.
The police opposed her release on bail, citing the risk of her committing serious offences and tampering with evidence.
The court was told on Friday that police were in the process of trying to get access to cloud servers belonging to Ms Kingston.
And they were concerned that if she was on bail, that she could get in and delete evidence.
Police had accessed one server, but were yet to gain access to others.
The court was told that the servers had about 160GB of data on them.
In arguing for her release, her solicitor argued that custody would be more onerous given that she had several medical conditions - including ADHD, autism and a heart condition - and because she was transgender.
Acting Magistrate Judith Sweeney described Ms Kingston's alleged offending as 'sophisticated, ongoing' and 'impacting people's lives in a way that is unconscionable'.
She noted many people had been affected by hacking and identity theft, such as the 2022 Optus data breach.
Ms Kingston was released on bail on strict conditions including that she live with her flatmate at Kingston, abide by a curfew and report to police daily.
Ms Kingston is also banned from accessing the internet or owning an internet-capable phone.
And before she was released, the court ordered that her flatmate surrender her smart TV so there was no risk of Ms Kingston accessing the internet.
Ms Kingston will return to court on July 18.
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