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Comments on the Assistance and Access Bill 2018 (PDF, 162 KB, 10 September 2018)

New device access laws proposed by the government increase national security risk by increasing the attack surface for hacking on all devices.

The implementation of this law will create one of the world's largest reservoir of high-value security holes for hackers to take advantage of in terms of obtaining access to personal devices. It will be hard to control access to exploits and the networks of the AFP, ASIO and other policing bodies when so much valuable information can be obtained by hijacking a single law enforcement agency.

A law that requires individuals to produce decryption keys for encrypted data could send innocent people to jail, because it is hard to tell the difference between encrypted data and white noise. The government wants to increase the penalty for not providing decryption keys to law enforcement from 2 to up to 10 years. 

Telecommunications metadata was illegally accessed almost as soon as the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Bill came into force. Now the government wants new powers to force companies to put in back-doors into electronic devices, and it puts all of us at risk. 

There is a chilling effect when people are spied upon. This effect extends to when people know there is even a small possibility that they could be spied upon.

The government wants to introduce new laws that could compel device makers to build back-doors that grant the government full access to devices they successfully get warrants for. This act effectively renders all electronic devices compromised from the perspective of keeping information secret from the currently ruling party, or any future ruling party.

The Science Party is a strong proponent of electronic health records, for their great potential to save lives and improve quality of life when used well. But this doesn't mean the Australian public should accept a high level of risk in return. 

We've updated our electronic health records policy to detail some requirements around privacy, security and best practice.