AFP dropped probe into Vodafone hack of investigative journo

The AFP dropped its investigation into the hacking of a journalist because the sole suspect had committed suicide.

An Australian Federal Police ­investigation found there were grounds to lay criminal charges over the hacking of a prominent journalist’s phone, but the case was dropped because the person considered to be solely guilty had committed suicide.

In January 2011, Fairfax journalist Natalie O’Brien published a story exposing widespread security flaws in the mobile customer databases of Vodafone Hutchison Australia, the carrier through which she coincidentally had a mobile phone service.

The following day, Vodafone illegally hacked her mobile phone records in an attempt to discover the identity of her sources.

Two whistleblowers who had worked for Vodafone’s fraud division at the time, Mark Burridge and Wayne Hancock, blew the whistle on the hacking, notifying the company’s Australian head of security in June 2012.

The men claimed orders for the hack came from management and numerous staffers were aware of the instructions and the hacking.

Vodafone Hutchison Australia reported the matter to police only in 2015 after The Australian ­revealed the hack.

At that time, the company claimed Burridge, who had committed suicide in 2014, was the only person involved in the hack and had acted as a “rogue employee”, carrying it out without the knowledge of management.

Documents released under Freedom of Information laws and obtained by The Australian now show the AFP dropped the case on the grounds it accepted Vodafone’s version of events that Burridge was solely responsible.

“This matter was investigated by the AFP Sydney office and, after due consideration, the AFP decided not to proceed with this matter,” AFP records state.

“The AFP found there was evidence which would have supported commonwealth charges in this matter, however the alleged ­offender … is deceased.”

O’Brien is, and was at the time of the hack, married to Nick Kaldas, who in 2011 was deputy commissioner of the NSW Police Force. Mr Kaldas has himself been the subject of illicit bugging, when his mobile phone was targeted by an internal police surveillance ­operation that ran between 1999 and 2001. The targeting of him has since been found to have been ­unjustified.

In June 2012, then Vodafone Hutchison Australia head of fraud Colin Yates wrote to the company’s global head of fraud in London to warn that the hacking of O’Brien’s phone represented a “huge risk”.

The AFP said the matter was now with the Australian Communications and Media Authority. ACMA declined to comment.

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