A 28-year-old man has appeared before an Australian court charged with hacking into a government computer system and wreaking havoc with employee information.

Prosecutors told the court that the man hacked into the Territory government's computer network and shut parts of it down.

Targeted were the Royal Darwin Hospital, Parliament House, the Supreme Court, and Berrimah Prison.  More than 10,000 public servants were affected, and a specialist crisis team needed to be brought in to repair the damage. Details on staff members and their passwords were deleted.  Top judges found
themselves locked out of their computers, if they knew how to turn them on, of course.

A month before the incident, the man resigned from an IT company which looked after the government's computer network.  It is claimed that the man used a former work colleague's log-in and password to access the government system and create the chaos.

Prosecutors said that it was an act of spite and vengeance because of his dissatisfaction with his employer or the world at large.  Police were easily able to track the attack back to the man’s house.

He faces 13 counts of computer related offenses.