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Australian Spy Agency Seeks Permission To Hack Third-Party Computers
New submitter LordLucless writes "ASIO, Australia's spy agency, is pushing for the ability to lawfully hijack peoples' computers — even if they are not under suspicion of any crime. They seek the ability to gain access to a third party's computer in order to facilitate gaining access to the real target — essentially using any person's personal computer as a proxy for their hacking attempts. The current legislation prohibits any action by ASIO that, among other things, interferes with a person's legitimate use of their computer. Conceivably, over-turning this restriction would give ASIO the ability to build their own bot-net of compromised machines. Perhaps inevitably, they say these changes are required to help them catch terrorists."
I am an Australian. Assume this passes. How can I harden my computer against being used as a node in an ASIO botnet?
The only thing I can think of at the moment is to use Linux and make sure I've closed all uncessary ports...?
What else? I am not a security buff. Encryption doesn't seem particularly useful, since the problem here isn't that ASIO is accessing our files (although they would probably definitely be doing that too), but that they're using our bandwidth and processing resources.
So what happens when one of these third parties is detained as a spy, if their compromised computer is detected at a border? Depending on where you go, taking a machine with you sounds like it could actually put your life - or at least, your freedom - at risk?
Have we given up even maintaining the facade of the rule of law now?
..don't panic
You get charged with interfering with law enforcement operation?
I'd like to see them do that to someone's OpenBSD box!
SARAVA!
Its partly because of our close relationship with the US. We have to keep track of terrorists living in Australia, and possibly migrating here.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Will Woz still want to buy Aussie citizenship if this is allowed?
Last time when we talk about Soviet Union and/or China and/or Cuba and/or Iran and/or North Korea or East Germany, or any of those countries we used words like "ROUGE COUNTRIES" to describe them.
And they deserved it, for those countries never about the human rights of their citizens, and those countries spied on their own citizens.
Nowadays, countries that are supposed to be "FREE", such as Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom and United States are becoming more and more like those rogue states.
What the fuck has happened to the spirit of "FREEDOM" of the free world?
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Dear ASIO, The only people (and I use that term loosely) currently terrorising Australia are you. Kindly take your hacking desires against lawful citizens and shove them.
Headline: "ASIO is already breaking into third-party computers unlawfully, but is tired of covering it up."
''The purpose of this power is to allow ASIO to access the computer of suspected terrorists and other security interests,'' : "The purpose of this power is power".
''(It would be used) in extremely limited circumstances and only when explicitly approved by the Attorney-General through a warrant.": "We'll use it whenever and order several redundant sets of rubber stamps for the warrants"
'The Attorney-General's Department refused to explain yesterday how third-party computers would be used, ''as this may divulge operationally sensitive information and methods used by ASIO in sensitive national security investigations.''' : "We use them for all sorts of things no one in their right mind would approve of"
Pal, Australia. What does the word conjure up? Think. I know you had history classes in school. Australia was a penal colony. Meaning, they were rogues before they ever got to Australia. They are EXPECTED to be rogue! Putting the words "Australia" and "rogue" in the same sentence is redundant and repetitive.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
* Run a BSD or Linux system. - Secure it. If you don't know how to do this, do your home work.
* Use a snapshot capable filesystem, and take snapshots (ZFS / BTRFS). - You can use these to identify file that have changed.
* Use Tripwire or a clone like AIDE. - This is a second level of checking for file changes.
* Manually audit your system regularly.
* Use OS repositories from outside Australia.
And the list would not end there.
This sig intentionally left blank.
It got sold away under your ass...
Well, technically, Iran has never been a "rouge nation". On the other hand, that's an apt description for all the communist nations...
On the other hand, if you really meant "ROGUE nation", then Iran would also fit nicely.
Why do so many supposedly educated people get "rouge" and "rogue" confused?
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
The Spirit of Freedom has been bought and sold to the mega-corporations and their client governments. Privacy doesn't need to be dead, but its more advantageous to the business community if it is, therefore things like this proposed legislation to "Combat Terrorism" - i.e. to combat those whom the Media Industry wants to close down and prevent from copying their copyright works.
"The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
Ever since terrorism became such a huge problem in Australia, ASIO have been unable to catch a single terrorist. So hampered were they by a lack of access to my computer, they have been unable to foil a single, credible terrorist plot. In the last decade or so, an attack by terrorists has been imminent, at any moment, I expect to be attacked by terrorists. The lack of an actual attack, the lack of any suspicion of an actual attack, the lack of any identifiable group with any plausible reason to attack, the lack of any identifiable person associated with any group planning to attack, these are simply indicators of how clever these devious, brown people are. If only someone would use my computer to hack into theirs, then Australians would know the reason for the constant stream of messages telling us to fear.
Brian damage, perhaps?
Oh, the beautiful gloss of greality!
No, buying is a bad practice in the corporate world. It has just been co-opted by the DiscoverCard Spirit of Freedom(TM), brought to you in part by McDonald's, and by the generous donation of the Monsanto Corporation. They are "Loving It"
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
I'd rather have terrorists.
It sounds like you need to brush up on your own history classes -- unless they were in the US, in which cases they made some important omissions. Such as the fact that England started shipping its inmates to Australia only after the American Revolution made them lose their favorite penal colony. Prior to then, many punishments for criminals consisted of them having to spend several years or their whole lives in the US.