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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...
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...
I wouldn't be a bit surprised if this bill was a backroom deal between the desires of the five eyes and the Australian Government.
Breaking encryption for one government breaks it for all.
I just means there will be a plethora of hidden encryption apps used exclusively by those who plan to do evil.
Wait until someone adds machine learning to the process of communicating meaning and watch people's messages disappear entirely.
As it's not words that information gathers wish to capture, but the meanings being conveyed.
The Australian government have escalated the information war, and don't understand the consequences of doing so.
I mean how can you ignore experts on a question that only experts can understand? It does not get much more stupid than this.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Simple: Own Monero? Go to prison for as long as they like to lock you up! Proto-Fascist nations have no trouble ignoring mathematical reality.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
It has been a dream for any one of the five eyes countries to pass laws like this. Once the agencies are able to get a foot in the door, precedence will be used as a reason the other four courts should also have access to the data. "The tools to are already created" argument will now exist in a courtroom . This is going to open a whole plethora of doors for all countries.
This will quickly spill over into the rest of the world. Once you see the democracies of the world go this route, the flood gates will open. There will be laws made all over the world that will copy this word for word. Entire turn-key packages to look all of this up will be sold to the highest bidders.
In the end, I see a market being created for stolen country keys and hacked law enforcement portals. Those keys will be nearly priceless. One key for all of whatsapp? Done. One portal for all of proton-mail? Done. The next question will be, "How would you like your secrets served up today sir?"
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Be mindful when it comes to your words. A string of some that don't mean much to you, may stick with someone else for a lifetime. - Rachel Wolchin
While the bill is fucking retarded. You aren't expected to magically break encryption, you are expected to provide as much technical assistance and information as possible when requested. Still a fucking awful invasive disaster that will drive away investment in this sector here, but it isn't quite as insane as what many make it out to be.
It seems it's been too long since we've had to work for our freedom and pay for it in blood, both our enemies' and our own.
That which comes free and is considered to be a given rarely has any worth in the eyes of people.
We are descending into totalitarianism again, one way or another, and at some point we will be sick enough of being enslaved, also one way or another, that we'll rise up, heads will roll and we'll install another ruling class, one we trust, to slowly grow complacent and enamored with their power.
The cycle is alive and well and we merely markers on it.
Okay honey, let me go pass a law to make them exist for you.
Well, that's not entirely true. What will happen in reality is that everything that relies on encryption, will either leave AU or be inherently insecure.
They will also find themselves an island in many more ways than they already are because they will be treated as a security hole. By both the good and the bad guys. They have no idea what they are in for.
Fascism = corporations own the government. Socialism = government own the corporations. For the poor and the middle class they look the same, for the rich and powerful it affects who to bribe.
Once again, the wrench cartoon is unironically used in a situation where it actually indicates that the citizen ends up being protected against the most common and concerning attacks.
Here is why a $5 wrench does not completely compromise the privacy given by cryptography: it is impossible to hit someone with a wrench without them knowing about it. In fact, you can't even show a wrench to someone purely for intimidation purposes, without them knowing about it.
Massive slurping on an internet backbone, using wrenches? Can't do it.
Secretly investigating someone by wrench-cracking their crypto without them at least being able to talk to a lawyer? Can't do it.
It's a technological measure, and it works. Crypto nerds have already beaten the wrench is most conceivable scenarios. The situations where the defense doesn't work? Doesn't matter, because those scenarios are someone's silly movie fantasy.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
I hate it when idiots redefine words.
Fascism must be authoritative. It's literally part of the definition. It also must be nationalistic, again, part of the definition.
Communism is an economic model. It doesn't have to be authoritative or nationalistic, but in practice, it seems to always head that way.
This is why I hate it when people label fascism as "right wing". All it does is means you have to make up two words that mean the exact same thing, but one for when it's right wing and another when it's left wing. And note, this whole "fascism is right wing" is a very recent redefinition of the word. Something like within the last 10 years. Historically, Stalin was considered fascist because that right wing requirement wasn't there. Fascism is neither right nor left. And as far as I can tell, the only reason the right wing thing got attached is because left wing idiots didn't want to be labeled fascists.
> Fascism = corporations own the government.
That is absolutely *not* what fascism is. Not even close.
If I was any company potentially affected by this, and the data security of my customers was important to me, I'd probably pull my services out of Australia over this, and that's precisely what I'd recommend to any and all companies operating in Australia at this point in time. This is utter and complete bullshit from the Australian government and it should not be allowed to stand.
..and as others have pointed out in this instantiation of this subject, as in past conversations about it, as in many comments of my own in the past: now that encryption-for-all is essentially worthless in Australia, only Australian criminals, and terrorists, and other 'ne'er-do-wells' will have encryption -- and the idiotic Australian govenment will have no way to 'force' anyone to unlock any of that. Only legitimate communications, transactions, and data will be compromised.
The depths of utter stupidity our species is capable of astounds me. It's no wonder, if there are actually starfaring alien civilizations in our galaxy, that they would refuse to reveal themselves to us. Things like this are an embarassment.