SoylentNews

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Peter Dutton confirms Australia could spy on its own citizens under cybersecurity plan:

Peter Dutton has confirmed the government's $1.6bn cyberstrategy will include capability for the Australian Signals Directorate to help law enforcement agencies identify and disrupt serious criminal activity – including in Australia.

By rendering support to the Australian federal police and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, the cybersecurity and intelligence agency would for the first time be able to target Australians, although Dutton maintains ASD won't be able to do so directly.

Dutton said law enforcement agencies would target terrorists, paedophiles and drug traffickers operating in the dark web – promising proposed new powers will apply "to those people and those people only".

Details of the new powers – which will require legislation – are not contained in the strategy, which says only that the government will "ensure law enforcement agencies have appropriate legislative powers and technical capabilities to deter, disrupt and defeat the criminal exploitation of anonymising technology and the dark web".

[...] Dutton said the new capabilities would be exercised only in relation to people "alleged to be committing very serious offences".

"If you're a paedophile you should be worried about these powers, if you're a terrorist ... if you're committing serious offence in relation to trafficking of drugs, of ice, for example, that's being pedalled to children, you should be worried about these powers as well.

"The reality is people are trying their best to groom kids online and ... people are trading gun parts on the dark web and it cannot be a lawless space. This law applies to those people and those people only."

Original Submission