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https://theconversation.com/facebook-or-twitter-posts-can-now-be-quietly-modified-by-the-government-under-new-surveillance-laws-167263

https://www.pri.org/stories/2020-03-19/how-war-coronavirus-could-lead-lasting-government-overreach

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-risks-to-australias-democracy/

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A new law gives Australian police unprecedented powers for online surveillance, data interception and altering data. These powers, outlined in the Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill, raise concerns over potential misuse, privacy and security.

The bill updates the Surveillance Devices Act 2004 and Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979. In essence, it allows law-enforcement agencies or authorities (such as the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission) to modify, add, copy or delete data when investigating serious online crimes.

The Human Rights Law Centre says the bill has insufficient safeguards for free speech and press freedom. Digital Rights Watch calls it a " warrantless surveillance regime" and notes the government ignored the recommendations of a bipartisan parliamentary committee to limit the powers granted by the new law.

What's more, legal hacking by law enforcement may make it easier for criminal hackers to illegally access computer systems via the same vulnerabilities used by the government.

What's in the law?

The bill introduces three new powers for law-enforcement agencies:

1. "data disruption warrants" allow authorities to "disrupt data" by copying, deleting or modifying data as they see fit

2. "network activity warrants" permit the collection of intelligence from devices or networks that are used, or likely to be used, by subject of the warrant

3. "account takeover warrants" let agencies take control of an online account (such as a social media account) to gather information for an investigation.

There is also an "emergency authorisation" procedure that allows these activities without a warrant under certain circumstances.

How is this different to previous laws?

Previous legislation, such as the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 and the Telecommunications Act 1997, contained greater privacy protections. Those laws, and others such as the Surveillances Devices Act 2004, do permit law-enforcement agencies to intercept or access communications and data under certain circumstances.

Read more: Australia's privacy laws gutted in court ruling on what is 'personal information'

However, the new bill gives agencies unprecedented interception or "hacking" powers. It also allows "assistance orders", which could require selected individuals to assist government hacking or face up to ten years in prison.

Why do police argue this bill is required?

According to the Department of Home Affairs, more and more criminal activity makes use of the "dark web" and "anonymising technologies". Previous powers are not enough to keep up with these new technologies.

In our view, specific and targeted access to users' information and activities may be needed to identify possible criminals or terrorists. In some cases, law enforcement agencies may need to modify, delete, copy or add content of users to prevent things like the distribution of child exploitation material. Lawful interception is key to protecting public and national security in the fight of global community against cybercrimes.

How does lawful data interception work?

"Lawful interception" is a network technology that allows electronic surveillance of communications, as authorised by judicial or administrative order. There are standards (which means regulations and rules) for telecommunication and internet service providers to achieve this, such as those recommended by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute.

Law-enforcement agencies may require service providers to hand over copies of communications data, decrypted data, or intercepted data without notifying users. Service providers may also have to make available analytical tools such as graphs or charts of target behaviours.

What are the privacy concerns?

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and others have also raised privacy concerns. The bill may impact third parties who are not suspected in the investigation of criminal activities. In particular, the bill can authorise access to third party computers, communication and data.

The Human Rights Law Centre argues the proposed broad powers can potentially compel any individual with relevant knowledge of the targeted computer or network to conduct hacking activities. In some cases this may clash with an individual's right to freedom from self-incrimination.

Read more: How the world's biggest dark web platform spreads millions of items of child sex abuse material - and why it's hard to stop

Enabling law enforcement agencies to modify potential evidence in a criminal proceeding is also a major issue of concern. The detection and prevention of inappropriate data disruption will be a key issue.

The implementation of the new warrants needs to be in line with Privacy Act 1988 which was introduced to promote and protect the privacy of individuals and to regulate Australian government agencies and organisations. Where some agencies may have exemption against the Privacy Act, it is important to balance between public safety and privacy impacts.

What are the security issues and impacts?

The Identify and Disrupt Bill is a part of an extensive set of Australian digital surveillance laws, including the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Act 2018 (TOLA), and the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Act 2015 (the Mandatory Metadata Retention Scheme).

Under the Identify and Disrupt Bill, access can be gained to encrypted data which could be copied, deleted, modified, and analysed even before its relevance can be determined. This significantly compromises users' privacy and digital rights.

Modern encryption can be very hard to crack, so hackers often exploit other vulnerabilities in a system to gain access to unencrypted data. Governments too are reportedly using these vulnerabilities for their own lawful hacking.

Specifically, they depend on " zero-day exploits ", which use software vulnerabilities that are unknown to software vendors or developers, to hack into a system. These vulnerabilities could be exploited for months or even years before they are patched.

Read more: From botnet to malware: a guide to decoding cybersecurity buzzwords

A conflict of interest may arise if law enforcement agencies are using zero-day exploits for lawful hacking. To protect citizens, we would expect these agencies to report or disclose any software vulnerabilities they discover to the software manufacturers so the weakness can be patched.

However, they may instead choose not to report them and use the vulnerabilities for their own hacking. This puts users at risk, as any third party, including criminal organisations, could exploit these so-called zero day vulnerabilities.

It's not an abstract concern. In 2016, the CIA's secret stash of hacking tools itself was stolen and published, highlighting the risk of these activities. The Chinese government has claimed the CIA was hacking targets in China for more than a decade using these and similar tools.

Government use of hacking tools may result in worse cyber security overall. The warrant powers given to Australian law enforcement agencies may protect public safety and national interests, but they may also provide powerful means for adversaries to access government data.

This includes the data and online accounts of targeted individuals like state officials, which may significantly impact national security. This possibility needs to be considered in light of the passing of the new bill.

Whilst the justification of the bill for public safety over personal privacy can be debatable, there is no doubt that the security aspects should not be undermined.

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Facebook or Twitter posts can now be quietly modified by the government under new surveillance laws

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A new law gives Australian police unprecedented powers for online surveillance, data interception and altering data. These powers, outlined in the Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill, raise concerns over potential misuse, privacy and security. The bill updates the Surveillance Devices Act 2004 and Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979.

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Bjorn walked on for a little over five minutes, finally reaching the local store, he stopped in his tracks however when he saw several police cars parked out the front. He slowly approached, looking to investigate, but before he could get far he saw the employees being lead out the front door by police. They were crying, screaming and yelling. Bjorn knew their fate was much worse than prison. He sighed, defeated at this point. He turned and walked home, once arriving home he sat on the couch.

“Hey! Where’s the milk?” Vlad said, opening the fridge.

“Store got raided, least there’s some job openings now… I am so done with the government…” Bjorn sighed.

“That actually plays into my plan…” Vlad said, sitting down beside Bjorn.

“Alright, Alright… What’s your plan?” Bjorn put his head in his hands, rubbing his temple.

“Ok, so… Let’s wind the clocks back about twenty-three years, tension is rising and COVID has just hit the world harder than a nuke… The government has taken temporary measures to protect us all from COVID, very fair, acceptable. However, governments want to keep this power. So to prevent all this tension from boiling over into a war the governments became isolationists. They hold this power so dear and silence the people because they know the people might raise tension. But… I heard something… The rest of the world isn’t in isolation, they’re out there, going about their lives. We need to reveal this…” Vlad said, pausing, but as soon as Bjorn opened his mouth to respond he went on again, “The plan is, we break into the town hall, open up all radio and wifi channels, the people must know. While you’re in there, grab a large amount of money, that… That is how we get rich and free! What do you think?” Vlad grinned, awaiting his friends response.

“God, that’s a lot to take in… So, we’ve just been here, and the rest of the world is just… Fine? Lord… You know what? Yeah-uh, let’s do it… I uh- got just the right tool for this,” Bjorn said, springing to life, quickly walking to his room.

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Bjorn slowly opened his eyes, the cold morning air forcing him to pull his blanket up and over him. He stuck one arm out to grab his phone, checking the time he yawned, slightly disappointed with how late he was waking up. He closed his eyes once again, trying to catch some more sleep, before that thought could process through his sleepy brain his door swung open, the familiar sound of his friend and housemate ‘Vlad’ opens the door, Vlad then began talking, swinging his arms out to accentuate,

“Bjorn! Wake up! Today is the day we become rich and free!” He grinned, his Slavic accent dominating the room.

“Sorry?” Bjorn replied, slowly getting out of bed. “What do you mean ‘free’? You always say we’ll be rich but never free? What changed?” Bjorn, threw on a shirt which sat crumpled up by the end of his bed.

“Everything! I have a plan! I just need a little more time, then I’ll explain. Go grab some milk, I want cereal.” Vlad said, patting his friend on the back.

Bjorn nodded, stuffing his old wallet into his jeans, he walked out the front door, checking the mail; Empty as always…

He began talking to himself;
“People fear sending mail these days… twenty-three goddamn years and the only mail I get are bills… They’re breathing down our necks…” Bjorn kept walking, furious.

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Vlad followed Bjorn into his room, watching him dig through some drawers, eventually pulling out a gun.

“My god man, where’d you get that?” Vlad excitedly said.

“Some cop dropped it when they were running past me, hell, I wasn’t gonna give it back…” Bjorn responded.

“Alright! I’ll drive you to the town hall! From there you can probably just find a backdoor…” Vlad was jumping with joy by this point.

The two walked out the front, locking the door, Vlad stood for a moment,

“You know you might never come back?” Vlad said, unusually solemn.

“Yes… I know, but it’s right to try,” Bjorn said, not looking towards Vlad.

“Right… Well, if it all goes wrong, I mightn’t be able to help get you out of there…” Vlad said, he wiped the sweat off his upper lip.

“Yeah… Get in the car… We gotta do this,” Bjorn said, trying not to dwell too long before his mind changes.

The drive was silent, they listened to the local government radio, by law of course. The host was an old man, ‘Mr Australia’ he called himself. He went on and on about his nationalistic ideals. Bjorn, realizing they’re close, grabs the magazine and loads it into his pistol. He stuffed it into his pants, putting on his jacket. Vlad took some very aggressive turns. Before they arrived in a repelling part of the city, the brutalist architecture itself was a form of oppression in this area. The towers loomed over the streets, light being a scarce resource; ahead of them sat a huge complex. It was protected by electrical chain link fences topped with barbed wire like an ice-cream of oppression. A concrete fortress sat, a tumour on the once beautiful world, like the government itself. The car pulled up to the guard-booth. Vlad, being a cleaner here flashed his card, the guard looked it over and nodded,

“What about him?” The guard gestured to Bjorn.

“Oh, new employee, he’s with me. His parents died in a crash, he has no money. I’m his best mate, I have to help him out, so I got him hired here… Gotta take him to reception, he has no ID,” Vlad said, with more emotion than an angry Italian, in an attempt to connect with the guard on a more emotional level.

“Oh…” The guard said, feeling guilty that he may have stepped over an emotional line. “Well… Well, uh, head on in. Your parking slot today is…” The guard paused, looking to his computer. “3C.”

With that, the gates swung open, the two drove through, passing stone-faced guards. Vlad parked, turning off the car and looking to Bjorn,

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“Ok, I’ll go into work, you follow me. Right before we reach reception say you have to go the bathroom. Then, well, run off and do you. The radio room is in the basement, best bet is to sneak down via the vents, since the room is usually empty. Turn off the radio once there and run out the back, the car will be waiting, if all goes well…” Vlad said, out of breath by the end of it.

Bjorn nodded, not feeling well enough to talk. They got out of the car and walked almost in unison to the reception, the tension building. Vlad opened the door, then holding it open for Bjorn and a few other employees. The two walked to the desk, the cold AC adding to the sterilized room. Bjorn tapped on Vlads shoulder, saying some words before walking off to the bathrooms. Bjorn after reaching the bathrooms and being out of sight slowly ripped off the vent, he placed it on the ground, crawling in. He turned around once inside, propping the vent back up before crawling down the vents. The heat was immense and in all fairness it stunk in there… Bjorn coughed, covering his mouth to mask the sound. He kept moving until he reached another vent, he sat there for a minute, looking in. The room was empty, as expected. He kicked the vent out and quickly climbed into the room. He made his way to the main computer, quickly switching it on. A screen demanded a login from him. He panicked, inputting several passwords; In response to this the computer flashed red. He then regained his composure before inputting Vlads ID into the computer. The computer flashed green before revealing a very complex set of information. Bjorn, not understanding most of it just opted for the button which read ‘Turn off all jammers’ The computers screen then turned off and immediately he heard screams from the building above. Bjorn turned heel and ran after he heard voices coming down the hallway. He ran straight for the backdoor, quickly running to the back alley after navigating through a series of complex corridors and hallways. After opening the final door he was struck with a blow from a baton, he fell to the ground, looking up to the attacker.

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“Ple-Please… I-I was forced to do it!” He saw an officer, she was flanked by two other police officers. He gasped, stuttering out a pathetic sentence. His lips quivered.

“I am Constable Crawford, serving the United people of Australia, you are convicted of treason and espionage. I sentence you to death,” The officer said, pulling out a pistol and pointing it to his forehead.

Bjorn sighed, his life flashing before his eyes. He realized he was fighting futility, he could never make the government capitulate. But he did ignite the fire. He felt like he was the… Arbiter of freedom… Just as he finished that string of thoughts the gun went off, everything went black, he lost all feeling in his body and just like that… Bjorn was gone.