The laws of Australia will trump the laws of mathematics: Turnbull

guest · Dec 5, 2018

Aussies demand backdoor to encrypted apps. Good luck with that says tech industry
December 5, 2018
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/12/05/oz_decryption_law/

The bill has been rushed through the parliamentary process with indecent speed, apparently due to a possible terrorist threat this Christmas.
Reaction? As hostile as you'd expect
The Communications Alliance has issued a media release in which it says there are “dangerous loopholes” in the bill. The social media reaction has been heated.

Bouncy Castle crypto developer Jon Eaves carved out a quick demonstration of how quickly someone can write a new encrypted chat app:

To show the stupidity of the Australian gov I've created a simple concept app which encrypts chat messages in about 4 hours. Your stupid legislation means anybody who wants to remain secret can do the same. [...] — Jon Eaves (@joneaves) December 4, 2018
[...] A pentester under the handle @attacus_au pointed out that their job – discovering vulnerabilities and reporting them to clients – becomes impossible if they aren't allowed to report their findings, because they might have uncovered an undocumented backdoor inserted at the behest of a security agency.
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ronjor · Dec 6, 2018

Australia now has encryption-busting laws as Labor capitulates

By Chris Duckett | December 6, 2018
So-called protections in the Bill are necessary, Opposition leader Bill Shorten has said.
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Stefan Froberg · Dec 6, 2018

"Let's just make Australians safer over Christmas," Bill Shorten said on Thursday evening.
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Is he referring to that failed 2016 plot by some unorganized wannabe terrorists?
Did encryption play any role in that?

EDIT:
Actually, I don't even want to know...Going to just block the whole stupid country in all my incoming/outcoing firewall rules from now on
Code:
http://www.iwik.org/ipcountry/AU.cidr

mirimir · Dec 6, 2018

Hey, maybe it's not to late to invest in Malaysia, Indonesia and/or New Guinea data centers

Krusty · Dec 6, 2018

My name is Krusty and I'm an Aussie.

Krusty · Dec 6, 2018

'Outlandish' encryption laws leave Australian tech industry angry and confused

The Australian technology industry is "incredulous to fuming mad" after the Government's controversial encryption bill passed the Senate.

Under the new laws, security agencies have greater powers to get at the encrypted messages of criminal suspects — in some cases they can demand companies build new capabilities to allow them access.
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Krusty · Dec 7, 2018

There is no established cause of action for invasion of privacy in Australian constitutional, statutory, or common law.
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https://www.loc.gov/law/help/online-privacy-law/2012/australia.php

deBoetie · Dec 7, 2018

Krusty said: ↑

My name is Krusty and I'm an Aussie.
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If it's any help in terms of Schadenfreude, I'm from the UK. Beat that! The IPA has rather vague provisions for busting encryption, but potentially can be used that way.

@mirimir - Perth is roughly equidistant between Singapore and Sydney, the distances are huge, so latency is an issue going anywhere outside jurisdiction from the east coast.

mirimir · Dec 7, 2018

I was just remembering that some "Australian" VPN servers are actually in Singapore. But yes, Australia is huge, and isolated.

Reminds me of On the Beach

Minimalist · Dec 7, 2018

Australia's Encryption-Busting Law Could Impact the World

Though Australia will become the testing ground, technologists and privacy advocates warn that the law will swiftly impact global policy. All of Australia's intelligence allies—the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand, known collectively as the Five Eyes—have spent decades lobbying for these mechanisms.
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https://www.wired.com/story/australia-encryption-law-global-impact/

Krusty · Dec 7, 2018

Australia data encryption laws explained

Australia has passed controversial laws designed to compel technology companies to grant police and security agencies access to encrypted messages.

The government says the laws, a world first, are necessary to help combat terrorism and crime.

However critics have listed wide-ranging concerns, including that the laws could undermine the overall security and privacy of users.

The laws were rushed through parliament on its final day of the year.

The Labor opposition said it had reluctantly supported the laws to help protect Australians during the Christmas period, but on Friday it said that "legitimate concerns" about them remained.

Cyber-security experts have warned the laws could now create a "global weak point" for companies such as Facebook and Apple.
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mirimir · Dec 7, 2018

There will always be a workaround.

deBoetie · Dec 8, 2018

@Minimalist - indeed, it's been obvious that the 5-eyes security services have been in undemocratic collusion for many years, and one of their techniques is to salami slice laws on a ratchet effect by exploiting political or terrorist acts in one jurisdiction as a model and justification for others to say - well they do it, so why don't we? These laws and land-grab never get reversed.

Not a brave new world I want.

Krusty · Dec 8, 2018

The federal government and Labor have passed controversial new encryption laws. What do they actually mean?

WHAT ARE THE MAIN CONCERNS?

Tech groups, experts and Australian senators have expressed concerns over the new law, including giants like Apple, Google and Facebook.

Opponents of the new law argue it will weaken Australians’ privacy and online security, potentially leaving them vulnerable to cyberhacking, and is a step on the way to a Big Brother-style police state.

Australian Greens’ party Senator Jordon Steele-John has been vocal in his opposition of the Bill, condemning the Opposition for helping the Morrison government pass it and describing it as “an affront to privacy and democracy”.

“Far from being a ‘national security measure’ this bill will have the unintended consequence of diminishing the online safety, security and privacy of every single Australian,” Senator Steele-John wrote earlier this week.
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guest · Dec 8, 2018

Australia’s vague anti-encryption law sets a dangerous new precedent
December 7, 2018
https://protonmail.com/blog/australia-anti-encryption-law/

What’s wrong with the Assistance and Access law?
From the center-left to the far-right, Australian lawmakers voted Thursday to break encryption once and for all. While the law does not technically require a backdoor, it would require companies to help police build software capable of decrypting a targeted user’s data (i.e. with targeted malware).

But the law is extremely confusing and vague, so it is difficult to know how it will be interpreted in practice.
The Assistance and Access law makes us less safe
A&A forbids the implementation of “systemic weaknesses,” but the law does not adequately define the term. Without a better definition, police could deploy tactics that result in unintended consequences. In our view, this is one of the most dangerous aspects of the law.
Even though A&A is confined to Australian jurisdiction, it sets a precedent with far-reaching dangers to cybersecurity.
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guest · Dec 14, 2018

Signal says it can't allow government access to users' chats
The company is responding to Australia’s controversial new law
December 14, 2018
https://www.engadget.com/2018/12/14/signal-cant-allow-government-access/

A number of companies that stand to be affected have spoken out about the legislation, and Signal has now joined in, explaining that it won't be able to fulfill such requests if asked.

"By design, Signal does not have a record of your contacts, social graph, conversation list, location, user avatar, user profile name, group memberships, group titles or group avatars," Signal's Joshua Lund wrote in a blog post.
"The end-to-end encrypted contents of every message and voice/video call are protected by keys that are entirely inaccessible to us."

"People often use Signal to share secrets with their friends, but we can't hide secrets in our software," he wrote.

"We can't include a backdoor in Signal."
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Minimalist · Jan 11, 2019

Australia’s anti-encryption collision with GDPR sub-processing

On Dec. 6, Australia passed a surprising law with a global impact on privacy. The new law requires any Australian company to build backdoors to encrypted data and communications when instructed to do so by the government, while also requiring secrecy about the existence of such surveillance capabilities from individuals and enterprise customers. This unverifiable question of compromised encryption presents many technical threats and introduces international regulatory compliance challenges as well.
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https://iapp.org/news/a/australias-anti-encryption-collision-with-gdpr-sub-processing/

Minimalist · Jan 20, 2019

Home Affairs plays down encryption law fears and promises to help industry cover costs

The home affairs department has sought to allay concerns about encryption legislation rushed through parliament at the end of 2018, promising to help pay for the costs of new surveillance capabilities and to consult industry on implementation.

In January the department contacted industry participants seeking help to write guidelines for the new regime of compulsory notices to access the electronic communications of people suspected of crimes or build new capabilities to help break encryption.
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https://www.theguardian.com/austral...ars-and-promises-to-help-industry-cover-costs

deBoetie · Jan 21, 2019

How generous to say that the service providers will be recompensed for their troubles! What they don't say is that the taxpayers are paying to have their own communication's security weakened.

Minimalist · Jan 22, 2019

Did Australia Poke a Hole in Your Phone’s Security?

A new law in Australia gives law enforcement authorities the power to compel tech-industry giants like Apple to create tools that would circumvent the encryption built into their products.

The law, the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Act 2018, applies only to tech products used or sold in Australia. But its impact could be global: If Apple were to build a so-called back door for iPhones sold in Australia, the authorities in other countries, including the United States, could force the company to use that same tool to assist their investigations.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/technology/australia-cellphone-encryption-security.html

Minimalist · Jan 23, 2019

Facebook and Google back Labor changes to laws which break encryption

Industry groups including the representative of tech giants Facebook, Google, Twitter and Amazon, have backed several Labor amendments to the government’s encryption bill.

Under Labor’s plan, law enforcement agencies would require a fresh warrant before ordering tech companies to assist or build a new capability to access electronic communications and the bill’s prohibition against creating a “systemic weakness” would be strengthened.

Those amendments were backed in a submission signed by the Communications Alliance, Australian Industry Group, Australian Information Industry Association and Digital Industry Group Inc, which represents the international tech giants in Australia.
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https://www.theguardian.com/technol...-labor-changes-to-laws-which-break-encryption

guest · Jan 30, 2019

Home Affairs says encryption-busting laws now in use
January 30, 2019
https://www.itnews.com.au/news/home-affairs-says-encryption-busting-laws-now-in-use-518612

The Department of Home Affairs said today that the new powers, rushed into law on December 6, had been used to “support” the work of federal agencies.

“The Department refers to the submissions from agencies for further details on the use of the powers.”
None of that detail is likely to escape into the public domain, however, due to extensive secrecy provisions that bind all parties affected by the laws.

Home Affairs said it is now engaging with agencies, communications providers, multinational companies and industry groups to try and develop more “comprehensive guidance and training material”.
“This process is ongoing,” it said.
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guest · Jan 31, 2019

NSW police corruption body wants access to encrypted communications
January 30, 2019
https://www.zdnet.com/article/nsw-police-corruption-body-wants-access-to-encrypted-communications/

The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) has asked for inclusion to the list of organisations able to access encrypted communications under Australia's new laws, unsure of the rationale behind its exclusion.

It said that last year, 93 percent of IP communications intercepted by virtue of LECC warrants were encrypted. It also said its digital forensics capability is hindered by the use of encryption to secure devices and digital storage.
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Krusty · Feb 6, 2019

Police use new phone-cracking powers as Government works out the fine print

Police are using Australia's new encryption powers — laws condemned as "rushed" and "naive" by industry experts — even as the Government is working out the administrative details.
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The Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment passed in December on Parliament's last sitting day after Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said it was an urgent imperative for national security.

Under the Act, security agencies can compel technology companies and others to help them examine the encrypted messages of criminal suspects, including via the creation of new technical capabilities.

In a submission to the parliamentary committee now reviewing the legislation, the Department said police and national security agencies have already used the Act to support their work.

The department is also currently circulating an "issues paper" to some companies, seeking feedback about a proposed framework that will guide how industry would give assistance to authorities.

The document, seen by the ABC, invites submissions on questions including how companies would like to be alerted about assistance requests and how to assess costs.

Describing the legislation as "fundamentally flawed", one industry insider said it was "odd" the paper was only being issued now after the bill was hurried through the Lower House and Senate.
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Stefan Froberg · Feb 6, 2019

This **** bubble law is one whistleblower away from busting.
And after the details of what kangaroo government wants big tech to exactly do to
undermine encryption, there is no turning back ...

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