Tech giant Apple contended that the lack of judicial oversight could reduce customer trust and security, among other reservations over Australia\u2019s draft decryption legislation
\n Australia recently joined forces with the US, the UK, Canada and New Zealand (called the Five Eyes alliance) to propose mandatory backdoors in encrypted chat in a bid to strengthen national security.
\nWhile the other Western countries have threatened to force tech companies to provide national security agencies with access to encrypted messages by establishing laws, Australia went ahead and did just that, drafting the Access and Assistance Bill 2018 and introducing it to Parliament last month.
\nHowever, critics have voiced their concerns over the proposed law, saying it would potentially require tech companies to build backdoors into their systems
\nApple has challenged the premise behind Australia\u2019s proposed decryption law, claiming that weakening encryption would lead to the profound risk of making criminals\u2019 jobs easier.
\nIn its submission to the Australian parliament on the draft legislation, which will require technology companies to provide law enforcement agencies with access to encrypted communications if passed, Apple said encryption is the best way to protect data and ultimately lives.
\n\u201cSoftware innovations of the future will depend on the foundation of strong device security,\u201d it said. \u201cTo allow for those protections to be weakened in any way slows our pace of progress and puts everyone at risk.\u201d
\nApple also took issue with the \u201cdangerously ambiguous\u201d terms of the draft legislation pertaining to encryption and security.
\nThese include \u201coverly broad powers that could weaken cyber security and encryption\u201d, a \u201clack of appropriate independent judicial oversight\u201d, and \u201ctechnical requirements based only on the government\u2019s subjective view of reasonableness and practicability\u201d, among others.
\nThey could also allow the government to \u201crequire the development of a tool that can unlock a particular user\u2019s device regardless of whether such tool could be used to unlock every other user\u2019s device as well\u201d.
\n\u201cAll of these capabilities should be as alarming to every Australian as they are to us,\u201d Apple said, even as it was appreciative of the government\u2019s inclusion of language that prohibits requiring a provider to implement or build a systemic weakness or systemic vulnerability, or prevent remediation of a systemic weakness.
\nIt urged the government to consider a provision similar to the UK\u2019s Investigatory Powers Act that requires judicial review of proposed technical capability notices before such notices can be served on a supplier.
\nBesides Apple, Cisco has also raised concerns over the proposed decryption law. In its submission, it expressed \u201cserious reservations\u201d regarding provisions that threaten to undercut sustained efforts by Cisco and others to develop and maintain technologies that are secure, transparent, trustworthy and accountable.<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s draft legislation is being supported by the Police Federation of Australia (PFA), representing the professional and industrial interests of 62,000 members at the national level.
\nIn a statement, it argued that technologies such as encryption \u2013 while an important part of Australians\u2019 everyday life \u2013 are also being used by organised criminals as well as terrorists.
\nBy 2020, all communications among organised crime groups and terrorists will be encrypted, according to PFA estimates. Some 95% of Australia\u2019s most dangerous criminals and terrorists already use encrypted communications, and 90% of the data being lawfully intercepted by the Australian Federal Police uses some form of encryption.
\nThe PFA said it has been advised that similar obligations already apply to domestic communications companies, and that the proposed law \u201csimply expands those obligations to offshore providers who are providing communication services in Australia\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tech giant Apple contended that the lack of judicial oversight could reduce customer trust and security, among other reservations over Australia\u2019s draft decryption legislation Australia recently joined forces with the US, the UK, Canada and New Zealand (called the Five Eyes alliance) to propose mandatory backdoors in encrypted chat in a bid to strengthen national […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cms.gsb.ac.in\/cyber\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cms.gsb.ac.in\/cyber\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cms.gsb.ac.in\/cyber\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cms.gsb.ac.in\/cyber\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cms.gsb.ac.in\/cyber\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=951"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/cms.gsb.ac.in\/cyber\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":952,"href":"http:\/\/cms.gsb.ac.in\/cyber\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951\/revisions\/952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cms.gsb.ac.in\/cyber\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cms.gsb.ac.in\/cyber\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cms.gsb.ac.in\/cyber\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}