A 22-year-old South Australian man is being held without bail after he was charged with 12 counts of cybercrime following a “complex” investigation that led to a range of state and federal offences.

The man, who was identified by ABC News as Aiden Wood, is said to have attended multiple private and government businesses between 22 December 2025 and 13 April 2026 “to facilitate the offending”, South Australia Police said in announcing the Payneham man’s arrest.

Police seized “a number of items” from his home for forensic examination and laid both state and Commonwealth charges, including unauthorised access to and modification of computer data – which provide for up to 10 years and two years imprisonment, respectively.

Police initially said Wood had been charged with 28 offences, but he reportedly presented to Adelaide Magistrates Court on Thursday charged with 12, including operating a restricted access computer system and modifying computer data to cause harm or inconvenience.

He is alleged to have “interfered with” NBN services at Port Adelaide Magistrates Court, causing staff to lose access to their Microsoft email system for 24 hours.

A string of hacking incidents

Even as he was refused bail by the magistrate, reports said Wood would also be charged over “unauthorised Wi-Fi access” to systems in a building in the Adelaide CBD, which is said to host “critical government infrastructure” for organisations including Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

After allegedly breaching a system within the building’s security office, he supposedly took over in-building printers to print hundreds of images of a cat and the building’s elevator management dashboard.

He reportedly posted about his attacks on communications platform Discord, with the group administrator approaching the victims to inform them about the activities.


The man's alleged targets included the Port Adelaide Magistrates Court. Image: Google Maps

The incidents are the latest in what a magistrate reportedly called a “cybercrime spree” that also saw Wood breach systems at three New South Wales and Victoria locations operated by cinema firm Val Morgan, and the network of Goodlife Gym in his hometown of Payneham.

He has also been charged with stalking and harassing a school friend, and allegedly threatening to kill the friend’s father.

The police prosecutor reportedly attributed Wood’s behaviour to “attention seeking [and] the ability that he can conduct this behaviour.”

‘Extreme’ potential to cause harm

Although Wood’s duty solicitor said the defendant has “quite a significant level of disability” and should be released to home detention bail, ABC News cited the police prosecutor as saying his “potential [to cause] serious harm… is extreme and cannot be managed.”

He faces a lengthy period in confinement: said to have already breached his current bail conditions, the magistrate refused his application for bail and set a new hearing date for December.

Wood – who allegedly completed a Diploma of Information Technology at TAFE SA this year, with a further certification in Microsoft Azure Fundamentals last year – appeared to have advertised himself on LinkedIn as ‘looking for work’.

Cybercriminals have kept authorities busy in recent weeks, with men in Queensland and NSW charged over online death threats and “menacing online conduct” towards parliamentarians, and two teenage boys arrested over alleged extremist material.

The AFP has even been targeted by scammers, with the agency recently issuing an alert warning Australians to be aware of calls, emails, or text messages from someone claiming to be an AFP cybercrime unit detective, an Operation Firestorm officer, or detective sergeant Tim Howard.