[AusNOG] Assistance and Access Bill moves to PJCIS

[Paul Wilkins]

It's a very good question how, when anyone who knows what they're talking
about opposes the Bill
 as an effective and reasonable approach to fighting terrorism and serious
crime in the context of increasing use of encryption, why is the Home
Affairs Department foisting this ill considered and poorly developed Bill
on the Nation?

I think partly it's cultural cringe. The NSA surveil their citizens, and
when ministers attend 5 Eyes conferences, they want to be just as macho.
But of course, the NSA have a clue, and they're resourced. It's still
dazzling that the NSA could have been in breach of the 1st Amendment for as
long as they were. In Australia we don't have a Bill of Rights, because
government has always observed the Westminster convention that we'll
respect the traditions of democracy - until they choose not to.

It's not so important whether those pushing the Bill on us understand the
technical consequences. They're taking advice from people they trust.
Dutton comes from the Queensland Police, and Hastie, the PJCIS Chairman,
was a Dutton supporter in the rolling of Turnbull. It's the mandarins
within Home Affairs or the Police who are telling the government this is
within their capability. As far as I can see, the few submissions
supporting the Bill are from police organisations.

I think we're beyond Dutton or Hastie caring if the Bill is good for the
nation. They're effectively riding a tiger where they've accused anyone
opposing the Bill to be weak on terrorism. So instead of a sensible public
discussion of how to enable legal intercept for encrypted communications,
we're getting the Liberal Trumpists using the Bill as a blunt object to
wedge Labor on terrorism and that's all that matters.

Kind regards

Paul Wilkins


On Fri, 23 Nov 2018 at 17:21, Mark Smith <markzzzsmith at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Fri., 23 Nov. 2018, 16:46 Robert Hudson <hudrob at gmail.com wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, 23 Nov 2018 at 14:47, Paul Brooks <pbrooks-ausnog at layer10.com.au>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> On 23/11/2018 11:37 AM, Alex Samad wrote:
>>> > Wondering what the implications of this bill and the recent China was
>>> stealing our
>>> > traffic....
>>> >
>>> > So in theory could china steal / sniff our traffic and because of
>>> these weakening of
>>> > encryption allow china to snope on our stuff
>>> >
>>> > A
>>> In theory no - this bill doesn't weaken encryption, and explicitly
>>> doesn't allow any
>>> changes that would weaken encryption.
>>>
>>
>> They say that - but I don't believe them.  I don't think they even
>> understand what they're suggesting (or if they do understand, they're
>> relying on others not understanding, or not caring).
>>
>>>
>>> This bill seeks to bypass encryption entirely by giving the agencies
>>> easier access to
>>> get into devices and the back-end databases of apps and websites, to see
>>> what is
>>> stored in there -bypassing unlock codes, PINS, thumbprint readers etc on
>>> devices for
>>> example. So for traffic being sniffed 'in the middle' the information is
>>> still
>>> sent/received as fully encrypted - and man-in-the-middle snooper won't
>>> see anything.
>>> But if the authorities get hold of your phone or PC, they'll have easier
>>> access to
>>> look into your sent/received message stores and read whats in there,
>>> which is stored
>>> in your device un-encrypted.
>>>
>>
>> The tools the authorities have access to will invariably fall into the
>> hands of others.
>>
>
>
> Or be abused by those who have official access to them.
>
>
> "Queensland in court fight with domestic violence victim whose details
> leaked by policeman"
>
> https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/aug/21/queensland-in-court-fight-with-domestic-violence-victim-whose-details-leaked-by-policeman
>
>
> "NSA SEXINT IS THE ABUSE YOU’VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR"
>
> http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2013/11/nsa-sexint-abuse-you
> ’ve-all-been-waiting
>
>
>
>>
>>>
>>> In practice, if they balls-up the change request given to the device
>>> manufacturer or
>>> app/website developer, anything could happen.
>>>
>>
>> Yep.  Aside from the direct ramifications, it's the indirect and
>> unintended consequences that REALLY have the potential to be damaging.
>>
>>>
>>> P.
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>>>
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