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Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

abc.net.au

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Re: Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

#171

Post by brokenmachine »

episteme wrote: post #136
_Nat_ wrote: post #43

Some of the comments so far seem to suggest that this bill would require software to include backdoors. However, it looks like [the bill's PDF]( https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/legislation/bi... ) includes: > Division 7—Limitations > 317ZG Designated communications provider must not be required to implement or build a systemic weakness or systemic vulnerability etc. > (1) A technical assistance notice o…

Thank you for this, there is a lot of doomsaying in this thread but this reads to me that it would be possible to refuse requests based on these limitations.

There's doomsaying because this is doom.

That's a pretty big call to refuse a secret request that you're not allowed to disclose to anyone, risking a lengthy jail term without the possibility of even seeking legal advice.

War Is Peace, Freedom Is Slavery, Ignorance Is Strength.

Have a safe Christmas Australia! Papers please!!

Re: Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

#172

Post by ENGNR »

cyphar wrote: post #19
steve_taylor wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Officially, they can’t, but you can be absolutely certain that iMessage, WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram are going to be immediately targeted with TCNs (technical capability notice), requiring them to bundle Australian government spyware and requiring that those apps send all conversations to the spyware.

This isn't quite true. The bill allows companies to provide statistics on how many TARs, TANs, and TCNs they've been served within a 6-month window. The obvious problem is that nothing stops them from lying or just omitting that information -- because why would you admit that your software is insecure?

Those weren't passed, it went in unamended

Re: Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

#173

Post by nailer »

shusson wrote: post #138
nailer wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh god. I left Oz in 2008 when Turnbull was a small-l-liberal, pro-business, pro-tech guy. From what I hear from home he became another deliberately ignorant Aussie conservative.

Ha, you forget how often we change our PMs :p

When I left it was just Kevin 07, before all that started.

Re: Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

#174

Post by daemin »

brokenmachine wrote: post #152
daemin wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't think it will help since the agencies can force telcos to mitm the store fronts.

Even this draconian bill I don't think has the power to make telcos mitm sites hosted overseas, does it? But who knows, this bill seems to be the Christmas gift that keeps on giving! Merry Totalitarian Christmas, everyone!!

Setting up a MITM would just be a small request from a low level technical employee. Just make packets from this IP go to this other IP for this one account.

Re: Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

#175

Post by brokenmachine »

daemin wrote: post #146
bigiain wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And then somebody from inside will get a guilty conscience, but remember what happened to Snowden, and just sell the backdoor straight to Huawei or NSO or Mohamad bin Salem (salving themselves by pretending they're going to donate hundreds of millions to "improving the world", but instead will by private islands and matching citizenships to Peter Thiel's...) :sigh:

Realistically, if you were a developer not in the chain of command and asked to do this: Would you? Could you? You would be knowingly putting your name to a vulnerability, and if someone asks then you have to keep it a secret and feign incompetence. Then if they revert your change you'll have to re-implement it. If you do tell your superiors (which would be most likely what would happen, even before writing the code)…

If you think about logistics they'd have to make contact with people in the company to even find out who the devs are who are capable of making a backdoor. That would probably tip off others in the company as to what was happening anyway. You'd think they'd essentially have to serve the whole dev team with the secret order.

I think you could immediately resign. It's not a slavery bill... is it?

Re: Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

#176

Post by mikro2nd »

askaboutit wrote: post #7
TheChaplain wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't Atlassian Australian? Or did they move?

They’re Australian but have offices in other countries. I believe they would move for the right reasons. This seems like a pretty big reason, considering they’re targeted at enterprise. But move where? UK will have this next, America does this without any laws at much greater effect and scale.

California. I had to agree to some changes to their ToS the other day (for Bitbucket) in which I agreed to dispute resolution under California law. I suppose that's a pretty good indication of their thinking. It's not like this legislation is unexpected or sudden.

Re: Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

#177

Post by brokenmachine »

jacques_chester wrote: post #162

If you are an Australian software engineer, you have one advantage that other nationalities do not: the E3 visa. It is a US working visa that is specifically reserved for Australians and consequently it is much easier to get than an H1B. My advice is that the Australian tech industry just got nuked from orbit, so come work in the USA. The pay is better, the work is more interesting and the tech companies actually hav…

You've got Trump. Also the NSA.

Maybe I'll just work on a farm instead of this technology madness.

Re: Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

#178

Post by kazen44 »

interfixus wrote: post #167
neotek wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This immensely stupid law applies to any business that operates in Australia, which includes Google, Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Facebook, Github, and every other major tech company on the planet. If they want to continue doing business in Australia (and they very much do) then they'll be forced to comply, which means everybody in the world is negatively affected by this insanity.

Fastmail, don't forget. With a somewhat heavy heart, but I shall be cancelling my service there.

i wonder if this would affect other, non autstralian mail providers (protonmail for instance).

Re: Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

#179

Post by jacques_chester »

brokenmachine wrote: post #177
jacques_chester wrote: post #162

If you are an Australian software engineer, you have one advantage that other nationalities do not: the E3 visa. It is a US working visa that is specifically reserved for Australians and consequently it is much easier to get than an H1B. My advice is that the Australian tech industry just got nuked from orbit, so come work in the USA. The pay is better, the work is more interesting and the tech companies actually hav…

You've got Trump. Also the NSA. Maybe I'll just work on a farm instead of this technology madness.

Trump won't last forever and Apple and others have been staring down three-letter agencies for a while now.

Re: Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended

#180

Post by anotherhuman0 »

krautjakob wrote: post #92

Ouch. Since I'm using Fastmail ... can anybody recommend a good alternative? I don't mind paying for a good and secure E-Mailprovider. Protonmail looks nice, but it does not seem to offer IMAP (because mails are end2end encrypted).

I'm very happy with Runbox.com. No idea if they're on the level or not, but I figure, everything's already compromised.
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