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From bypassing firewalls to police at
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her door, Birdie Kingston, a former
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student majoring in electrical
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engineering, charged over a series of
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cyber hacks on Western Sydney
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University. Police alleging the
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27year-old first hacked the university's
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database in 2021, accessing cheaper
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parking on campus, then altering her
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grades before her offending escalated.
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In 2023, Strikeforce detectives became
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involved. Kingston allegedly threatening
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to sell confidential student data on the
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dark web. The demand was for a um
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cryptocurrency to the value of around
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$40,000 Australian dollars. The
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university didn't pay the ransom. Police
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had already searched this Kingswood
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apartment 2 years ago. Yesterday
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morning, they seized computers along
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with a server. 100 gigabytes of cloud
0:52
data now being forensically analyzed.
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Kingston is now facing 20 charges,
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including 10 counts of accessing
1:00
restricted data, fraud, and a blackmail
1:03
offense, which alone carries a maximum
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penalty of 10 years imprisonment. There
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are a number of grievances over a period
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of years which were not resolved to
1:13
their liking and we believe that that's
1:15
a driving factor behind the offending.
