Australian hackers have been accessing money, personal information, and private government databases through dishonest methods across the internet for decades.
But not all Australian hackers are after private information and secrets. In recent history some of the most notorious Aussie hackers have accessed council sewerage networks to flood the streets with raw sewage, while others have "Rick-rolled"- sending someone the music video for the 1987 Rick Astley song "Never Gonna Give You Up" to someone - thousands of iPhone users worldwide.
Below we list twelve of the most notorious Australian hackers. But even though they might be notorious, they're not necessarily the best hackers, because only the best don't get caught.

Vitek Boden
Charged with: Releasing millions of litres of raw sewage into parks and waterways after hacking into Maroochy Shire Council computers on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland in 2000. 
Sentence: 2 years prison time
Story: Vitek Boden used computer equipment, two way radios, and his laptop to hack into the Maroochy Shire Council waste management system, and released millions of litres of raw sewage into the local environment after his job application was rejected by the council.

Skeeve Stevens aka 'Optik Surfer'
Skeeve Stevens arrives at court in 1995 with his girlfriend at the time. Photo: Brendan Esposito
Charged with: Stealing and publishing credit card numbers of 1200 AUSNet subscribers in   April 1995.
Sentence: Three year jail term.
Story: Steven's defence for the hack was he wanted to highlight the flaws in AUSNet's network, but that didn't stop the judge from handing down a three year prison sentence, the longest prison sentence of its kind at the time. He now works as an online network consultant.

Peter John Clark
Charged with: Unlawfully accessing the University of New South Wales' computer network.
Sentence: $3000 and a 3 year good behaviour bond.
Story: In 1993 Mr. Clark was not a student at the university but that didn't stop him from using a Trojan horse to access private emails, files and university computers from his home.

Julian Assange aka 'Mendax'
Julian Assange. Photo: Tom McKendrick
Charged with: He's been accredited to multiple attacks on international online networks, databases and companies, including NASA, the Pentagon, the US Navy, countless Australian universities, and many other institutions.
Sentence: $2100 and a good behaviour bond for hacking into Nortel, a Canadian multinational telecommunications company.
Story: Before he found Wikileaks, Assange undertook a number of cyber attacks and hacks when he was a teenager growing up in the suburbs of Melbourne. In 1991 he was found to be hacking into Nortel telecommunications from a modem in his house. The Australian Federal Police arrested and charged him, in 1994, with 25 charges relating to the Nortel hack. Due to his lack of malcontent and disrupted childhood Assange wasn't given jail time.

Richard Jones aka 'Electron'
Charged with: Intruded on the University of Texas online network and charged with the theft of the Zardoz computer security list.
Sentence: 18 month suspended sentence with 300 hours of community service.
Story: Jones worked online with Realm, an online hacking collective during the late 1980s, to hack into numerous US government agencies from his home in Melbourne. As a part of the Realm collective he gained access to the Zardoz files, a program which shows weaknesses in other online networks. He was known to work with Nahshon Even-Chaim and was arrested in the same police investigation in 1990.

Bradley David Ward
Bradley David Ward leaves court. Photo: Fairfax Media/The Courier
Charged with: Hacking into Ballarat City Council computers.
Sentence: $6000 fine.
Story: In 2008 Bradley David Ward hacked into the computers and databases at the Ballarat City Council offices, simply because he was curious. During the hacking, Ward had access to payroll information as well as confidential emails.

Nahshon Even-Chaim aka 'Phoenix'
Charged with: Hacking into NASA, the CSIRO, three American Universities, private mainframes and US government laboratories.
Sentence: Suspended 12 months imprisonment, $1000 good behavior bond and 500 hours of community service.
Story: In 1990 the Australian hacker known as Phoenix hacked into NASA and a number of other computer networks in the United States from a computer in the Melbourne suburbs. By hacking NASA he forced the system into a 24 hour lock down, effectively shutting down the whole agency for 24 hours. After sentencing he was given a job in an IT company in Melbourne.

Matthew Flannery aka 'Aush0k'
Facing court: Matthew Flannery.
Charged with: 19 offences carrying up to 12 years in jail.
Sentence: 15 months home detention (with ankle bracelet).
Story: The IT specialist who was the self-proclaimed leader of international hacking ring Lulzsec was charged with hacking into the Narrabri Shire Council's website. In 2013 Flannery uploaded a file to the Narrabri Shire Council's online server which modified the sites security, allowing the hacker unauthorised access to restricted information. After the arrest and charges were laid he backed down from his claim of being the leader of Lulzsec.

David Anthony McIntosh
Charged with: Hacking into Northern Territory government data network and causing an estimated $1.2 million worth of damage.
Sentence: Two years prison.
Story: After hacking into the Northern Territory government database in 2009, David Anthony McIntosh deleted the user accounts for 10,475 Territory government public servants. Workers had to be sent home until the system had been fixed with experts being called in to fix the damaging hack.

Ashley Towns
A Facebook profile picture of Ashley Towns, who created the Rick Astley Apple iPhone worm.
Charged with: N/A.      
Sentence: N/A.
Story: Using jailbroken iPhones, Towns Rick Rolled users by changing their phone background to a picture of 80s singer Rick Astley in 2009. Upset iPhone users lashed out at Towns after their personal security was breached, with some users finding their data limits had been reached. Surprisingly, after the hack Mogeneration, a Sydney application developer, offered Towns a job.

Hew Raymond Griffiths aka 'Bandido'
Hew Raymond Griffiths outside the Federal Court. Photo: Wade Laube
Charged with: Copyright infringement and conspiracy to commit copyright infringement under United States law.
Sentence: 51 months prison.
Story: Griffiths was the ringleader of an international online hacking gang called DrinkOrDie. After the US Justice Department charged Griffiths with violating copyright laws, the Australian Federal Police arrested him in his home on the New South Wales Central Coast in 2005. He fought extradition but in 2007 he was extradited to the United States to face charges on piracy and copyright infringement. He was the first person to be extradited to the United States under American piracy laws. Because of the time he served in an Australian prison he only served 15 months behind bars in a US prison.

Timothy Sabre (paid a hacker to hack someone's computer)
Timothy Sabre.
Charged with: Paying for a hacker to delete, alter and erase stored data in a private computer.
Sentence: 450 hours community service and a good behaviour bond.
Story: It was alleged Sabre paid a hacker to crack into web designer Hollie Bell's PC and website. In 1999 she'd worked at one of his businesses and said the damage done could have cost her up to $10,000 as well as her professional career.

Bonus hacker

David Noel Cecil aka 'Evil'
David Noel Cecil.
Charged with: 49 charges of accessing the server of National Broadband Network provider Platform Networks.
Sentence: 2.5 years jail and restricted computer access.
Story: A 25-year-old unemployed truck driver, David Noel Cecil taught himself how to hack. He was sentenced with hacking into systems maintained by Platform Networks, an NBN provider which was acquired by ISP EFTel. He was also linked to other high-profile hacks, such as the one that resulted in data being erased at Distribute.IT and a website being defaced at the University of Sydney.
Samuel Roberts and Ben Grubb assisted in researching this article