contributed by Simon Anderson
26/11/99 05:41 PM
Parliament passes ASIO bill William Maher, Newswire
Parliament has passed laws that allow the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) to tap into and alter data on private computer systems.
The ASIO Amendment Bill 1999 passed the Senate yesterday, giving federal authorities the power to tap into private computer systems for surveillance purposes. This is the first time in 13 years a major change has been made to the ASIO Act 1979.
While the legislation gained bipartisan support, some members expressed concern that bill was rushed through Parliament. Senator Bolkus noted yesterday that the Senate had waited four or five months to debate the bill. "We could have spent more time in the analysis period," he said in Parliament.
Labor has also expressed concern that the law allows ASIO to add, delete or alter data on remote computers. An amendment has subsequently been made that says data can only be altered if it is "necessary" to obtain access to data.
The change hasn't appeased the Democrats, who claim that the new law is a serious breach of Australians' privacy. Deputy leader Senator Natasha Stott Despoja said that the laws could be intentionally misused to plant evidence. "The government has found quite a convenient excuse for significant new excursions into personal surveillance," she said.
Privacy groups are angry that the bill gives ASIO the power to tap into private computer systems. Consumer group Financial Services Consumer Policy Centre has previously called on the Senate to reject the bill, claiming it contains "serious flaws" (see story).
This article is located at http://www.newswire.com.au/9911/asio.htm
14/05/99 05:44 PM
ASIO report under fire William Maher,
Privacy advocates have criticised a parliamentary report that endorses legislation allowing the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) to tap into private computers.
The report was released yesterday in the Senate by a joint committee which was established to investigate the proposed changes contained within the ASIO Amendment Bill 1999. In presenting the report to the Senate, Senator David MacGibbon said the committee would support the bill, although he called for several of the amendments to be made clearer.
Not everyone is so happy. Consumer group Financial Services Consumer Policy Centre has opposed the report, claiming that it fails to address the privacy concerns of Australian citizens. Director Chris Connolly claimed that the bill contains "serious flaws" and called on the Senate to reject the report. "The bill gives ASIO new powers to hack into computers, place tracking devices on cars and humans, access our tax records, and access our banking records," he said.
One major concern is the amount of time given to the committee to conduct its investigations. The group was given three and a half weeks to examine the proposed changes, leading to speculation that public debate was being deliberately constrained. "The government has not explained the urgency it has attached to our consideration of the bill," the committee report noted.
One reason for the reduced time frame is that some amendments must be passed in order to give ASIO new security powers in time for the Sydney Olympics. In an effort to speed proceedings the committee's deadline was set to May 8, allowing only one non-government witness to attend the hearings.
Connelly was critical of the committee process, claiming that ASIO was attempting to covertly gain new powers. "It is clear that ASIO [is] attempting to gain new powers under the cover of this Olympics amendment," Connelly said.
Connelly also called for urgent attention to the amendment that gives ASIO the power to "add, delete or alter" data stored on a private computer. Although ASIO is not subject to the Privacy Act 1988, several privacy groups have called for the amendment to be removed.
The committee partially recognised the concerns, and recommended that ASIO's ability to alter data be limited only to those situations where it was necessary to do so to gain access to evidence. Senator Robert Ray said he recognised the concerns of privacy groups, but claimed the changes were necessary. "[ASIO] only has the right to change a computer setup to the extent to which the they need covert entrance into it. Again, this is a modernising of the act," he said in Parliament.
The amendment bill has faced increased opposition since the original proposal was discovered in January by a university student in Tasmania (see story). The document detailed several important proposals allowing ASIO to "hack" into private computers, proposals that were since suppressed for reasons relating to "national security, law enforcement, and public safety".
This article is located at http://newswire.com.au/9905/asiopri.htm
14/05/99 05:44 PM
ASIO report under fire William Maher,
Privacy advocates have criticised a parliamentary report that endorses legislation allowing the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) to tap into private computers.
The report was released yesterday in the Senate by a joint committee which was established to investigate the proposed changes contained within the ASIO Amendment Bill 1999. In presenting the report to the Senate, Senator David MacGibbon said the committee would support the bill, although he called for several of the amendments to be made clearer.
Not everyone is so happy. Consumer group Financial Services Consumer Policy Centre has opposed the report, claiming that it fails to address the privacy concerns of Australian citizens. Director Chris Connolly claimed that the bill contains "serious flaws" and called on the Senate to reject the report. "The bill gives ASIO new powers to hack into computers, place tracking devices on cars and humans, access our tax records, and access our banking records," he said.
One major concern is the amount of time given to the committee to conduct its investigations. The group was given three and a half weeks to examine the proposed changes, leading to speculation that public debate was being deliberately constrained. "The government has not explained the urgency it has attached to our consideration of the bill," the committee report noted.
One reason for the reduced time frame is that some amendments must be passed in order to give ASIO new security powers in time for the Sydney Olympics. In an effort to speed proceedings the committee's deadline was set to May 8, allowing only one non-government witness to attend the hearings.
Connelly was critical of the committee process, claiming that ASIO was attempting to covertly gain new powers. "It is clear that ASIO [is] attempting to gain new powers under the cover of this Olympics amendment," Connelly said.
Connelly also called for urgent attention to the amendment that gives ASIO the power to "add, delete or alter" data stored on a private computer. Although ASIO is not subject to the Privacy Act 1988, several privacy groups have called for the amendment to be removed.
The committee partially recognised the concerns, and recommended that ASIO's ability to alter data be limited only to those situations where it was necessary to do so to gain access to evidence. Senator Robert Ray said he recognised the concerns of privacy groups, but claimed the changes were necessary. "[ASIO] only has the right to change a computer setup to the extent to which the they need covert entrance into it. Again, this is a modernising of the act," he said in Parliament.
The amendment bill has faced increased opposition since the original proposal was discovered in January by a university student in Tasmania (see story). The document detailed several important proposals allowing ASIO to "hack" into private computers, proposals that were since suppressed for reasons relating to "national security, law enforcement, and public safety".
This article is located at http://newswire.com.au/9905/asiopri.htm
13/01/99 12:21 PM
Hidden report reveals crypto paranoia
Roulla Yiacoumi,
A university student in Tasmania has stumbled across a pivotal government report on cryptography which was mysteriously withdrawn from public view two years ago.
The report, Review of Policy Relating to Encryption Technologies, written by former deputy director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) Gerard Walsh in 1996, was intended to open the cryptography debate in Australia.
Instead, its withdrawal from public sale some three weeks later -- after it was already printed -- led to rumours of political intervention.
Online civil liberties group Electronic Frontiers Australia applied for the report's release under the Freedom of Information Act in March 1997, but the application was rejected for national security, law enforcement, and public safety reasons.
The EFA persisted, and in June of that year, obtained a censored version of the document. Reportedly "sensitive" paragraphs had been removed and the EFA posted the sanitised version of the report on its Web site.
However, as is standard practice for government reports intended for public distribution, a number of copies were sent to major Australian libraries by the printers, the Australian Government Publishing Service. The Attorney-General's department was unaware that not all copies were returned following the unexplained cancellation of the report's sale.
Recently, a university student in Hobart uncovered a copy of the original report sitting in the city's State Library. It was forwarded to the EFA which has since added the missing paragraphs to its online report.
Paragraphs which were once considered too contentious to release publicly are now highlighted in red; they reveal something of the ignorance and paranoia regarding cryptography of the bureaucracy of the time.
Missing parts of the Walsh report included:
An acknowledgement that encryption was a "looming problem which warranted close monitoring"; A push for the Crimes Act 1914 to be changed to allow hacking by police and other law enforcement agencies; An admission that strong cryptography "which cannot be defeated by law enforcement and national security agencies" is already available; A proposal to allow the Australian Federal Police, the National Crime Authority and ASIO to "alter proprietary software so that it performs additional functions", in effect turning PCs into "listening devices"; A criticism of British and US recovery systems which had "design flaws" and "weaknesses"; An acknowledgement that law enforcement agencies had not experienced difficulty in securing warrants to seize stored data, but had found it "increasingly difficult in accessing this material in a readable form". To seek a password from those whose property was seized could be taken as "an admission the particular encryption program has not or cannot be broken".
This article is located at http://newswire.com.au/9901/crypto.htm
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