The Guardian reports that an "Australian bill to create back door into encrypted apps [is] in 'advanced stages.'" The Australian government is pushing ahead with controversial legislation it says will create "back doors" into encrypted communication services – but still can't say when it will introduce the bill.
After originally aiming to have the legislation before parliament in the first quarter of this year, the government has delayed its introduction. A spokesman for the acting attorney general, Marise Payne, would only say it was in "the advanced stages of development".
[...] "If it is to proceed, Labor calls on the government to release an exposure draft of this legislation, to allow for proper consultation. This is important given the complexities around this novel area of lawmaking."
Greens senator Jordon Steele-John said the whole concept was laughable. "Once the government has a back door into encrypted devices and platforms, everybody has a back door into encrypted devices and platforms," he said.
"That has been proven over and over again. Once it is created, somebody gets in. I wouldn't trust a government that can't keep Medicare information protected to be inserting a back door into a tin shed.
"So I certainly wouldn't be trusting them to do something as serious as this."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 14 2018, @11:08AM
Can't wait to see their faces when ALL major non-Australian web services (by usage) go dark "in protest" because they don't/won't implement backdoors in standard TLS - search engines, social medias, shopping sites like Amazon, CDNs etc.
Bonus points if they coordinate it.