By Julius Dennis
A Griffith University student allegedly used software to steal staff and student logins in 2013. Photo: ABC News: Peter Mullins
A man was incorrectly charged under his brother's name over a decade old hack on a Queensland university, despite Australian authorities locating his sibling in New Zealand six years earlier.
In February 2023, Hussein I'lachi was charged for allegedly stealing the login details of about 130 Griffith University staff and students in 2013.
But the name on the charge sheet was Adam Alachi - his brother, nine years his senior.
Hussein I'lachi was born in 2001, meaning he would have been 12 years old at the time of the alleged crime.
He appeared in the Brisbane Magistrates Court four times under his brother's name before the charges were dropped.
Hussein I'lachi was arrested at the Carina police station on February 17, 2023. Photo: ABC News: Michael Lloyd
Court documents from an unrelated case show the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and Australian Border Force (ABF) were both aware of Adam Alachi's presence in New Zealand in 2017, six years before his younger brother's arrest.
His case begs questions of how strong the communication lines are between state and federal authorities and how Hussein I'lachi was charged under the wrong name.
An alleged threat
According to a Griffith University investigation done after the hack, which the ABC gained access to through right to information (RTI) laws, on June 12, 2013, a student at the university's Gold Coast campus accused a fellow student of threatening to delete their marks from the university's intranet.
After the threat, their mark on a recent assignment was changed to a zero, the investigation report by the university noted.
According to the report, the student who made the threat had allegedly "searched for and downloaded" software, which made a record of every key pressed on a computer, and was capable of capturing logins, credit card details and other private matters.
The Griffith University investigation alleged a student's mark had been changed to zero. Photo: ABC News: Julius Dennis
At the time, the university did not require anyone to sign into laptops in lecture theatres, allowing "a window of opportunity" when "malicious software such as key logging" could be installed.
The report alleged the software was used to illegally compile an online Microsoft Word document with details of about 130 students and staff, most of which were staff.
Police alleged the document was four pages long and titled Pass New.
"At least 16 other students" had accessed the document, according to the Griffith report.
Just after midnight on June 7, 2013, auditing was disabled in the university's mark centre and the student's score was changed to zero, the report said.
The Griffith investigation alleged a key logger was used to steal login details at the university. Photo: ABC News: Michael Lloyd
Queensland police would allege the hacker was a pharmacological science student at the university's Gold Coast campus named Adam Alachi.
In a document acquired through RTI laws, the investigating officer alleged Mr Alachi had "downloaded copies of upcoming examinations and on-sold [some] to other students".
On October 10, 2013, police raided Adam Alachi's Upper Coomera home on the Gold Coast, seizing multiple computers, hard drives and mobile phones, according to the charge sheet from when Hussein I'lachi was arrested.
Police would allege Mr Alachi made "admissions to 'hacking' multiple accounts on the Griffith University network and obtaining examinations prior to exam dates".
Three passports
According to court documents from the unrelated case Adam Alachi was allegedly found in New Zealand with multiple passports in separate names in February 2017.
Immigration New Zealand brought this to the attention of the ABF, which then alerted DFAT who "conducted checks into the individual".
According to the prosecutor's statement of facts in that case, Mr Alachi allegedly had one Australian passport as Adam Isaac, and two New Zealand passports under the names Adam Elache and Adem Oshanveh.
Prosecutors in that case have listed Adam Alachi - the name of the alleged hacker at Griffith - as a known alias of the man found in New Zealand, but that link does not appear to have been made when his presence was brought to the attention of the ABF and DFAT.
Younger brother's arrest
The warrant for Mr Alachi's arrest over the hack was still active in February 2023, when his younger brother Hussein walked into a police station in the south Brisbane suburb of Carina to deal with a driving violation.
Police arrested him and accused him of being the Griffith University hacker.
Hussein approached the ABC, claiming the arrest was racially charged, and that police assumed he was the alleged offender because they shared a similar name and complexion.
He did not tell the ABC the accused individual was his brother, though it is unclear whether he was aware.
Despite having identification, Hussein appeared at the Brisbane Magistrates Court under his brother's name four times.
In May 2023 the charges were dropped, but police never admitted they arrested the wrong person. Instead, they said the evidence of the hack had been lost in a "catastrophic memory drive failure", causing the case to fall over.
In a statement, the Queensland Police Service said it "does not comment on historical intelligence or investigations conducted by other jurisdictions".
However, it did confirm no further arrests were made in the case other than Hussein's 2023 arrest.
The ABC understands there has not been an AFP investigation into Mr Alachi, and the Commonwealth Department of Public Prosecutions said they had not prosecuted the individual involved.
DFAT would not comment on the situation.
- ABC
