Christopher John Duff seeks bail after allegedly accessing almost 9000 sensitive court documents
An alleged hacker, accused of accessing nearly 9000 sensitive court documents in a data breach that rocked the state’s justice system, has been granted bail.
NSW
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An alleged hacker, accused of accessing nearly 9000 sensitive court documents in a data breach that rocked the state’s justice system, has been granted bail.
Cybercrime detectives arrested Christopher John Duff, 38, on Wednesday morning, when police raided a Maroubra address and seized two laptops.
The 38-year-old, who is yet to enter a plea to one count of accessing or modifying restricted data held in a computer, faced Waverley Local Court on Thursday.
Duff is also yet to enter pleas in a separate matter, in which he is charged with using a carriage service to harass, stalk and intimidate with the intention to cause fear of physical harm.His bail conditions require him to report to police daily, surrender his passport, possess only one phone which can only make calls and texts, and not go near an international airport or point of departure.
He will have to forfeit a $1000 surety if he fails to comply with the conditions.
Hours after being granted bail, Duff hid his face with a jacket as he left Waverley Police Station and quickly entered a nearby Tesla.
He was charged almost five weeks after NSW Police confirmed the NSW Department of Community and Justice’s internal cybersecurity team discovered an account had allegedly accessed thousands of files, including apprehended violence orders.
The alleged unauthorised access to 8769 restricted documents, held by the department’s online registry website, occurred between January 29 and March 20.
Following Duff’s arrest, NSW Police said strike force detectives, working closely with state and Commonwealth agencies, had “identified the source of the compromise as an account linked to a registered user of the online registry website”.
When the breach was first revealed in late March, NSW Premier Chris Minns and Attorney-General Michael Daley urged domestic violence victims to take extra precautions as detectives and private cybersecurity firms raced to track down the identity of the alleged hacker, the scale of the breach and how many people had been affected.
Mr Daley previously said the documents had not been found on the dark web, suggesting the information had not been disseminated.
Duff’s matter will return to court at a later date.
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