0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
Sweeping legislation allowing officials from the Australian Federal Police and Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission to target suspected criminals online has passed through the country’s parliament with bipartisan support.On Aug. 25, the Identify and Disrupt bill passed through Australia’s Senate, introducing three new warrants allowing authorities to take unprecedented action against suspected cybercriminals.The new warrants authorize police to hack the personal computers and networks of suspected criminals, seize control of their online accounts and identities, and disrupt their data. ...While both the government and opposition supported the legislation, Senator Lidia Thorpe of the minor party The Greens slammed the bill for hastening Australia’s march down the path to becoming a “surveillance state":Quote "In effect, this Bill would allow spy agencies to modify, copy, or delete your data with a data disruption warrant; collect intelligence on your online activities with a network activity warrant; also they can take over your social media and other online accounts and profiles with an account takeover warrant.” ...Rest of story at Cointelegraph
"In effect, this Bill would allow spy agencies to modify, copy, or delete your data with a data disruption warrant; collect intelligence on your online activities with a network activity warrant; also they can take over your social media and other online accounts and profiles with an account takeover warrant.”
Australia’s controversial and heavily scrutinised ‘hacking’ bill has been passed by the Senate after copping 60 amendments from the House of Representatives.The Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill 2020 gives the Australia Federal Police (AFP) and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) three controversial new powers when it comes to tackling online crime.The first change is a data disruption power that reportedly aims to prevent “continuation of criminal activity by participants, and be the safest and most expedient option where those participants are in unknown locations or acting under anonymous or false identities”. Basically, it gives the AFP the power to modify, delete, copy or edit data as they see fit.Naturally, this has faced backlash, with critics of the bill asserting that these powers could be used to target anyone from political activists to somebody who illegally downloaded music off the internet.“No one’s safe under these new laws,” Victorian Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe said of the proposal last year.“It will affect grassroots communities across the country, it will affect children. It will affect anybody who downloads a movie illegally over the internet – they could go to jail for five years.” ...
