Australia Passes Anti-Encryption Laws [Update] (zdnet.com)

Earlier today, Australia's House of Representatives passed the Assistance and Access Bill. The Anti-Encryption Bill, as it is known as, would allow the nation's police and anti-corruption forces to ask, before forcing, internet companies, telcos, messaging providers, or anyone deemed necessary, to break into whatever content agencies they want access to. "While the Bill can still be blocked by the Senate -- Australian Twitter has been quite vocal over today's proceedings, especially in regards to the [Australian Labor Party's] involvement," reports Gizmodo. ZDNet highlights the key findings from a report from the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS): The threshold for industry assistance is recommended to be lifted to offenses with maximum penalties in excess of three years; Technical Assistance Notices (TANs) and Technical Capability Notices (TCNs) will be subjected to statutory time limits, as well as any extension, renewal, or variation to the notices; the systemic weakness clause to apply to all listing acts and things; and the double-lock mechanism of approval from Attorney-General and Minister of Communications will be needed, with the report saying the Communications Minister will provide "a direct avenue for the concerns of the relevant industry to be considered as part of the approval process."

The report's recommendations also call for a review after 18 months of the Bill coming into effect by the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor; TANs issued by state and territory police forces to be approved by the Australian Federal Police commissioner; companies issued with notices are able to appeal to the Attorney-General to disclose publicly the fact they are issued a TCN; and the committee will review the passed legislation in the new year and report by April 3, 2019, right around when the next election is expected to be called. In short: "Testimony from experts has been ignored; actual scrutiny of the Bill is kicked down the road for the next Parliament; Labor has made sure it is not skewered by the Coalition and seen to be voting against national security legislation on the floor of Parliament; and any technical expert must have security clearance equal to the Australia's spies, i.e. someone who has been in the spy sector." Further reading: Australia Set To Spy on WhatsApp Messages With Encryption Law.

UPDATE: The encryption bill has passed the Senate with a final vote of 44-12, with Labor and the Coalition voting for it. "Australia's security and intelligence agencies now have legal authority to force encryption services to break the encryptions, reports The Guardian. Story is developing...

Comments

Re:Update:

[MrKaos]

Has been stopped for now:

No it hasn't. It is being debated in the Senate right now.

Re:Australia has the most stupid tech laws...

[MrKaos]

I mean how can you ignore experts on a question that only experts can understand? It does not get much more stupid than this.

As someone who analysed all 176 pages and make a two part 80 page submission to the PJCIS among many others my sense is that the government wants these powers and they are bulldozing anyone or anything that gets in the way.

This law is about as offensive to any person who holds free will and freedom of association as one of the fundamental tenants of democracy.

I wouldn't call it stupid. I'd call it intentionally deceptive and calculated to completely broadside the electorate. The government has gone back on all of its assurances to push this into 2019 and review the Bill properly. To give you an idea of the deception involved, over 100 pages of amendments were presented at 09:00am this morning and at the end of the day no one has even had a chance to look at what the amendments are.

Furthermore, about 10 minutes ago the so called "opposition" has just revealed that it won't support it's own amendments to the Bill. This is about as a disgusting travesty or so called "democracy" I have ever seen.

Have no doubt this bill has global ramifications via intelligence sharing agreements.

Re:Not Even A Month Since Election

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, the right supports privacy and encryption. The left supports a lack of privacy, and no encryption, because it's important that the rights of the government exceed the rights of the individual, which is actually fascism.

A lot of people say this won't work, but it will work. Mostly companies will just block encrypted traffic, or force people to use encryption that can be easily broken. Use of strong encryption will be pretty much tantamount to an admission of guilt for whatever they accuse you of. If there's money to be made, and as small a country as Australia is, there is actually money to be made out of 20+ million people, then it's big enough that companies will work to help the Australian Government enforce it's laws, just how American, European and Chinese companies all charge people GST for Australia now, even though it was said that it wouldn't work, and would be impossible to enforce.

What you really need to worry about.... Australia has long been a testing ground to work out if new ideas will be accepted in the US.

Re:Not Even A Month Since Election

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Actually, the right supports privacy and encryption.

Of course they do.

Re:Decrypt This Blockchain!

[sg_oneill]

No what you have heard is the usual shit on the internet from tin foil wearing idiots that happily make up anything. This new law is terrible, but it is nothing like that and even if they wanted to they couldn't do that as none of that software is developed in Australia.

No, don't just make shit up. There are three forms of notices.

From the Governments OWN site;-

Technical capability notice (TCN): Under a TCN, the Attorney-General can require a provider to build a new capability that will enable them to give assistance to ASIO and âinterception agenciesâ(TM), where the Attorney-General is satisfied that the requirements are âreasonable and proportionateâ(TM) and that compliance is âpracticable and technically feasible

That is, the government can force Apple or Google to create a backdoor for the government to decrypt your messages.

Already we have had news that Apple might just pull out of the Australian market, just like Google did to China a number of years ago, because destroying their own technical infrastructure to comply with a relatively tiny market might not be worth the it. We've had a number of Australian tech stocks shit the bed because the international market won't be able to trust our technology.

And it won't even fucking work, because while your grandma will now be putting her credit cards in a web browser that might have a compromised SSL cert (And lets be honest, the Australian govt is incredibly leaky, that sort of backdoor will be in criminal hands within weeks) , the criminals and terrorists will just install Linux or use Signal and be completely immune to this shit.

Re:Decrypt This Blockchain!

[mjwx]

You know, socialism and fascism are not actually mutually exclusive in practice.

And yet, so many socialist countries manage to own the means of production AND manage to pull the fascism hat out of their ass all at the same time. East Germany to Venezuela...some things never change.

The common trait you're looking for isn't fascism, it's authoritarianism.

Fascism is far right authoritarianism.
Communism is far left authoritarianism.
Fascism is a government based on ultra-nationalism, it simply needs authoritarianism to achieve this (read: to silence and suppress their opposition).