Australia Encrypted Messaging Bill to Pass After Labor Strikes Deal with Govt
1–10 of 32 posts
Re: Australia Encrypted Messaging Bill to Pass After Labor Strikes Deal with Govt
#2So, what happens to Signal in Australia if the bill passes?
Re: Australia Encrypted Messaging Bill to Pass After Labor Strikes Deal with Govt
#3Maybe I don't understand all of the issues, but I'm gonna be as straightforward as I can: if you are a messaging platform doing explicit business in Australia under these rules, we have to assume you have or are willing to backdoor your software. It is a reasonable assumption that it will be hidden and that the backdoor is general enough for use outside of Australia (even if you don't explicitly deploy/enable it elsewhere, you wrote it, it exists). Therefore, if you do explicit business under these rules I have to assume you are compromised or are willing to be compromised.
Re: Australia Encrypted Messaging Bill to Pass After Labor Strikes Deal with Govt
#4So, what happens to Signal in Australia if the bill passes?
Signal would have to find a way to send a special app to you which does not encrypt or specially encrypts in order to funnel data to AU government. If it does not, it becomes illegal. Considering signal warns people if the key changes, it probably means Signal is now illegal as it might be physically/mathematically impossible to satisfy the law.
Secure communication is now illegal in Australia.
Re: Australia Encrypted Messaging Bill to Pass After Labor Strikes Deal with Govt
#5So, what happens to Signal in Australia if the bill passes?
They can only compel companies within (incorporated in?) Australia is my understanding, not foreign companies. This is a sad day for a government going out of control; I didn't elect representatives to be this over-reaching or to ignore the wishes of the people like this; again under that old chestnut guise of "Terror!". Doesn't even need a warrant, just a nod from an ex-magistrate, and I'm sure the right ones can always be found.
But I suspect this'll be a testbed for the other Five Eyes; if the public don't make a big noise, I'd expect to see this in the UK, US, NZ and Canada etc pretty soon.
Re: Australia Encrypted Messaging Bill to Pass After Labor Strikes Deal with Govt
#6Fastmail users should be on notice with this legislation if they chose this service for privacy/security purposes.
Re: Australia Encrypted Messaging Bill to Pass After Labor Strikes Deal with Govt
#7So, what happens to Signal in Australia if the bill passes?
Signal would have to find a way to send a special app to you which does not encrypt or specially encrypts in order to funnel data to AU government. If it does not, it becomes illegal. Considering signal warns people if the key changes, it probably means Signal is now illegal as it might be physically/mathematically impossible to satisfy the law. Secure communication is now illegal in Australia.
Or they'll have the carriers in Australia push an OS update that specifically exfiltrates your Signal session keys to the government.
Then it won't matter what Signal does or doesn't do, they can still get what they want.
Re: Australia Encrypted Messaging Bill to Pass After Labor Strikes Deal with Govt
#8Fastmail users should be on notice with this legislation if they chose this service for privacy/security purposes.
Indeed. Fastmail is no longer secure by law as it is now illegal to have a secure service the moment a govt official asks for access.
Re: Australia Encrypted Messaging Bill to Pass After Labor Strikes Deal with Govt
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Signal would have to find a way to send a special app to you which does not encrypt or specially encrypts in order to funnel data to AU government. If it does not, it becomes illegal. Considering signal warns people if the key changes, it probably means Signal is now illegal as it might be physically/mathematically impossible to satisfy the law. Secure communication is now illegal in Australia.
Or they'll have the carriers in Australia push an OS update that specifically exfiltrates your Signal session keys to the government. Then it won't matter what Signal does or doesn't do, they can still get what they want.
> Or they'll have the carriers in Australia push an OS update
One of many reasons you should not have your carrier control your OS update channel.
Re: Australia Encrypted Messaging Bill to Pass After Labor Strikes Deal with Govt
#10So, what happens to Signal in Australia if the bill passes?
Compromised version dropped onto phone of a target? Most people are reliant on App Stores for their apps, so that will be a likely vector. We don’t run checksums on desktop software, let alone software from App Stores.