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Australian Government Seeks To Boost Spy Agencies' Powers
angry tapir writes The Australian government has indicated it intends to seek a boost to the powers of Australia's spy agencies, particularly ASIO (the Australian Security Intelligence Organization). The attorney-general told the Senate today that the government would introduce legislation based on recommendations of a parliamentary committee that last year canvassed "reforms" including boosting ASIO's power to penetrate third party computer systems to intercept communications to and from a target. That report also covered other issues such as the possibility of introducing a mandatory data retention scheme for ISPs and telcos.
And another explanation for the Fermi paradox.. If technology itself will not kill us (or we wit our technology), governments around the world will get such control freaks that they in effect sabotage the civilization itself.
We seen examples of that in the past, when governments get too power hungry - take the ancient Romans as example - society will collapse.
One of the real issues is the broken justification - war against terror is a sophism. If you verify the amount of casualties in western countries, you will see that per saved life, the effort done and money wasted is totally disproportional. If we are after saving lives, we would make roads safer, obliged car checkups free, public healthcare for free, and a few more other things a civilized society would or could do, wasting less money and with higher efforts.
The truth is that we allow a elite to grab more and more power, powers where even medieval rulers only could have dreamed of. And we all know that it we continue this path, the system will collapse. Just power hungry people don't care that - they are not after saving civilians or society - they are after saving themselves.
Soon, we will live in a society that's resembling the society as seen in the (cult) movie Brazil. Any technological progress will cease. Either some revolution happens - with all risks, either we are heading towards new dark ages.
I apologize for using the Fermi paradox to get your attention, but a bit of nerd will hopefully see the bigger view. Our question as society is not: where are we now. But more, where do we want to be in 50 or 100 years. And since politicians don't come up with the (right) answers, others must, if we want to survive on this nice planet.
The ASIO is a wonderful organisation which has always put the democratic values of Australia first and never wasted any of its resources.
The australian government is corrupt to the core and has been busted spying on companies for its big political donors. They have been spying on their own citizens too without probable cause. People have no bills of rights. The police are corrupt. The spy agencies are corrupt. The police who watch the spy agencies are corrupt. The whole country is one big shitbag of corruption.
http://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/world/2014/03/08/the-hague-rules-timor-leste-material-seized-asio-raids/1394197200
http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/11/how-australia-is-spying-on-its-own-2/
https://www.efa.org.au/2013/06/19/online-surveillance-govt-hiding/
http://www.crikey.com.au/2014/02/17/tony-abbotts-highly-revealing-lie-about-why-we-spy
http://www.independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-surveillance-state-how-australia-is-spying-on-its-own,5907
http://kangaroocourtofaustralia.com/2011/10/09/the-canberra-mafia-how-and-why-the-australian-federal-government-conceal-corruption/
seeing how the entire continent was stolen from aborigines by convicts and all.
Good point - such a bunch of criminals certainly need tough surveilance
Let's face it, they are probably already doing most of what they propose to legislate, might as well make it official.
I guess it's still better than secret courts that approve actions that no one can oppose because that too is a secret.
It works really well for the US, why not for our good friends down under?
A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
What is with this policy? We've killed it - repeatedly and it just won't stay dead.
I mean we know they're doing intercepts of some sort anyway, and we know they retain probably quite a bit, but the big benefit at the moment is none of this can be used in court.
And for the types of things it's worth stopping, you don't need to use it since if you grab some terrorists with a couple kilograms of fertilizer and diesel in a truck, then you've got all your evidence.
What seems way more likely to me is that this is being pushed hard by the copyright lobby, who, once they can legally obtain the data, will want to use it to go after people.
theyre just taking their cue from the us. every bully needs a lapdog.
Our current government are arseholes. Yes, I am saying the other mob is better. Not much better perhaps, but better than this bunch of complete dicks.
Don't get me started on what they've done to our National Broadband Network.
No, I didn't vote for them.
Look up WWII. You may have heard of it. Also look up Asia. Australia is a chose ally of the US and has US troops stationed in it. Much of Asia is not sympathetic to this position (exactly why the troops are there).
They do have an aggressive colonial minority which inhabit south western Sydney, which you could say, is at war with Australia.
"I don't remember any war where Australia was a side."
World War I , World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Afghanistan, Iraq
There was also a place in asia called East Timor which was at war with Indonesia. Aussie and NZ forces went there as peacekeepers...
Ignore the hate radio bullshit, it seems a few of the more out of touch types from the north shore of Sydney now embedded in Canberra are the ones trying to demolish what Australia has become. Cut back on training and import skilled workers instead, bringing back British titles, the list is long of radical changes they are forcing on the country - yet they call themselves "conservative".
For handling network and serial communications.
spy gap...hah...we need to be the leaders in spying...it's like copyright, one side "harmonizes" copyright law with another country by passing new copyright laws that are just a bit more strict than the other country, then the other country "harmonizes" copyright law with the first, but only a little more strict, lather, rinse, repeat..
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
"We" are still the leaders in spying, considering we (if you're referring to the US) are one of the members of the ECHELON group, a.k.a. the "five eyes" or AUSCANNZUKUS (for the five members: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US). As long as each member is permitted to spy on "foreign" countries, they are free to exchange data gathered on citizens of them all. If the NSA gets quashed, ASIO, GCHQ and the rest of them can just pick up the slack.
ASIO notices you and wants to know more about you. A cleared official or bureaucrat authorizes a "sneak and peek" like digital finding, tasking your home computer for a look.
The new legal idea is to place ASIO spyware into your Windows, Apple (other OS?) computer and then see if you need more attention without complex extra court requests.
Logs and malware product is then reviewed. The malware would be made to look and feel like any other infected bot computer in Australia - another suburban adsl 2+ "home" computer running malware on your computer. If the ip is ever traced back by the private internet security sector they will find an empty/under renovation/to be rented house with a computer 'networked' on the floor with simple 24/7 database.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Re Asio lyrics by Redgum :)
a U.N. flag, now he's trading in securities, Do it for the practice, do it for the fun, Everything is legal, anything goes
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"