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Oz Government to Become "Biggest Hacker in Town"

Posted by Nathan on

Wired is running a story with further information about the Australian Government authorising legalised hacking of private computer systems by its internal security organisation, ASIO.

4 of 186 comments (clear)

  1. new method for old crime by JohnG · · Score: 4
    This is really just causing criminals to create a new way to commit an old crime. Think about it. the IRS here in the US has for all of it's life, been able to look into the books of companies. But that didn't stop them from fixing the books. Now the Australian criminals will just have to put up decoy info on the server and keep the pertinet stuff some where else. Like say for example a LAN. The bad guys (errr Australian gov.) would have to be in the room with the computers to hack a network with no outside connection.
    Beside, who keeps info that could breach national security on a public server anyhow?

  2. ASIO by debrain · · Score: 5
    Ok -- I clicked on the ASIO web page and it came up:
    ASIO test page
    And I come to the realization that I connected to the web page of a national intelligence agency and it was pleasantly informed that they were testing something. Why does this worry me? In the back of my mind, I can't help but think that when I get up tomorrow my computer will have "missing time" ... and it'll be runnig asio.d
  3. Fight fire with foam - not fire (revised) by nullity · · Score: 5

    This is an interesting issue because it draws numerous issues of technology, government, and privacy together. The descision touches on governmental rights and restrictions with regard to its citizens, privacy issues, security, permissible protection, etc.

    In many ways technology is only bringing to light how invasive our governments have been in the past. It seems conceded by both sides of the issue (its hard to tell which argument it supports) that this merely extends previously held powers to "modern technology". Maybe technology is merely raising public awereness of just how invasive our governments have or could have been (legally)...

    By way of example, in Australia, the Philippines, and I'm sure other nations, the governemnt is allowed to "root through" private mail upon mere suspicion of criminal behavior. But because this mail was *centrally controlled* it was unclear when this occurred. I'm sure many other people have gotten packages and messages that have been opened by "somebody".

    > The new powers are contained in a bill passed by
    > Australia's parliament late last month (the
    > Australian Security Intelligence Organization
    > Legislation Amendment 1999).

    This raises the issue of technologist awareness. I'm not really sure that *any* civilian groups would really be driving this bill. In fact this sounds like something governments like to sneak quietly through w/o raising fuss. Why? It raises government power, and sadly political focus (at least in the US) is largely centered around the wielding of power.

    ** ITS HARDER TO DEAL WITH THESE THINGS ONCE THEY ARE PASSED **

    Of course another approach to combatting this is to fight back. Internet technology has been kind enough to oblige knowledegable users with "close to professional" (or as good) security tools. Use PGP even when you don't *really* need it. It just gets more encrypted mail out there, which certainely complicates the job of a centralized monitoring system.

    -nullity-

    "Honesty is the best policy, but insanity is the best defence"

  4. Re:Australia's national security by CesiumFrog · · Score: 4
    Australia never really had direct enemies, except when Japan almost took a shot at us in WWII (Bombing Darwin and sending subs into Sydney harbour, tsck tsck..). The reason is that Australia just isn't worth invading. It's big, and mostly not worth inhabiting. The effort of transporting troops across some ocean, then through the middle of a desert just to pick a fight with an army prepared for the climate?

    Also, Australian gov't likes to send lots of it's troops to help out whoever it thinks are it's friends. Whenever the US finds a cause, Australia backs it. Sure, our army is quite insignificant by comparison, but it's assumed that alliances with the US and Britain would be of some use if we were attacked.


    On a slightly unrelated note, shouldn't we have "Australia" icons on the slashdot main page! Surely there's enough articles for a seperate section ;)