[AusNOG] Assistance and Access Bill moves to PJCIS

[Robert Hudson]

A limited scope is nearly as bad as a carte-blanche licence to spy on
law-abiding citizens.

A major part of the opposition to this bill is the fact that despite what
Malcolm Turnbull tried to claim, the laws of Australia do not override the
laws of mathematics.

Aside from the fact that we know damned well that as soon as the capability
exists, it will be misused - not only will the AFP and ASIO use it
elsewhere, other agencies WILL get hold of the capability. There's also
those pesky rules of mathematics to consider here - there is no way to
break the encryption of just terrorists and child abusers - the mathematics
of encryption just don't work that way.

And of course, once the vulnerabilities in systems are created, they don't
check for warrants, agency appropriateness and legal approvals before
allowing access. "Let me see your credentials and warrant" said no
back-door ever.

I am naturally wary of slippery slope arguments - but our law enforcement
agencies (as a whole, and as a collection of individuals) have a proven
track record of being given an inch and taking a mile. Or two.

The very notion that encryption systems can be selectively broken in only
legally appropriate instances is ludicrous - once the cat is out of the
bag, it is out of the bag for all.

The only thing more ludicrous is the belief that Australia's legal reach is
significant enough for this to matter a single iota. If if this bill
becomes law, that terrorists and child abusers would simply use encryption
tools that are not subject to Australian law.

The over-inflated opinion of self's almost as bad as the Internet filter
arguments (in some ways, it's worse, due to the consequences) - the thought
that stopping the Australian online population interested in accessing
child abuse material over HTTP/HTTPS channels that the filter could see
would have any positive impact at all on child abuse victims was ludicrous

Conroy and friends also argued that if you were against his filter, you
were pro child abuse - which was patently ridiculous.We will see similar
arguments from Dutton et al on this (if we haven't seen them already) and
they'll be just as invalid here was they were before.


On Fri, 30 Nov. 2018, 3:52 pm Paul Wilkins <paulwilkins369 at gmail.com wrote:

> Apparently PJCIS may be considering limiting the Bill to exercise by ASIO
> and the AFP only, and limiting scope of crimes to only terrorism and child
> abuse related. That would be of huge assistance in allaying public concerns
> its a stalking horse for mass surveillance. Further, such limited purview
> would mean there simply isn't the industrial scale of activity as
> anticipated in the current Bill's scope. Such a light touch approach would
> greatly mitigate the security and economic impacts.
>
> Now before people start complaining that such a move would still enable
> invasions of privacy, consider, "first they came for the terrorists and
> child abusers" said no one ever.
>
> Kind regards
>
> Paul Wilkins
>
> On Fri, 30 Nov 2018 at 15:10, Paul Wilkins <paulwilkins369 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Hastie, Senator Bushby, Julian Leeser, Jim Molan, some pretty
>> disappointing stuff from them all this morning. For shits and giggles, you
>> can read the proceedings and where PJCIS members ask questions, try to
>> guess their political alignment from the questions asked.
>>
>> Kind regards
>>
>> Paul Wilkins
>>
>>
>> On Fri, 30 Nov 2018 at 10:11, I <beatthebastards at inbox.com> wrote:
>>
>>>
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