A new law gives Australian police unprecedented powers for online surveillance, data interception, and altering data.
The bill updates theSurveillance Devices Act 2004andTelecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979.
The Human Rights Law Centre says the bill hasinsufficient safeguards for free speech and press freedom.
Whats in the law?
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How is this different from previous laws?
However, the new bill gives agencies unprecedented interception or hacking powers.
Why do police argue this bill is required?
Previous powers are not enough to keep up with these new technologies.
Lawful interception is key to protecting public and national security in the fight of the global community against cybercrimes.
How does lawful data interception work?
Service providers may also have to make available analytical tools such as graphs or charts of target behaviors.
What are the privacy concerns?
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and others have alsoraised privacy concerns.
The bill may impact third parties who are not suspected in the investigation of criminal activities.
In particular, the bill can authorize access to third party computers, communication, and data.
In some cases, this may clash with an individuals right to freedom from self-incrimination.
Enabling law enforcement agencies to modify potential evidence in a criminal proceeding is also a major issue of concern.
The detection and prevention of inappropriate data disruption will be a key issue.
Where some agencies may have exemptions against the Privacy Act, it is important tobalancebetween public safety andprivacy impacts.
What are the security issues and impacts?
This significantly compromises users privacy and digital rights.
Governments too are reportedlyusing these vulnerabilitiesfor their own lawful hacking.
These vulnerabilities could be exploited for months or even years before they are patched.
A conflict of interest may arise if law enforcement agencies are using zero-day exploits for lawful hacking.
However, they may instead choose not to report them and use the vulnerabilities for their own hacking.
Its not an abstract concern.
Government use of hacking tools may result in worse cyber security overall.
This possibility needs to be considered in light of the passing of the new bill.
