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posted by janrinok on Friday May 22 2015, @09:38PM   Printer-friendly

According to Daniel Mathews a lecturer in mathematics and founding member of Wikileaks, new laws passed in Australia (but not yet in effect) could criminalize the teaching of encryption. He explains how a ridiculously broad law could effectively make any encryption stronger than 512 bits criminal if your client is not Australian.

From the article:

The story begins with the Australian government's Defence and Strategic Goods List (DSGL). This list specifies goods considered important to national defence and security, and which are therefore tightly controlled.

Regulation of military weapons is not a particularly controversial idea. But the DSGL covers much more than munitions. It also includes many "dual-use" goods, which are goods with both military and civilian uses. This includes substantial sections on chemicals, electronics and telecommunications, among other things.

Disturbingly, the DSGL risks veering wildly in the direction of over-classification, covering activities that are completely unrelated to military or intelligence applications.

He says, "In short, the DSGL casts an extremely wide net, potentially catching open source privacy software, information security research and education, and the entire computer security industry in its snare. Most ridiculous, though, are some badly flawed technicalities. As I have argued before, the specifications are so imprecise that they potentially include a little algorithm you learned at primary school called division. If so, then division has become a potential weapon, and your calculator (or smartphone, computer, or any electronic device) is a potential delivery system for it."

 
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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by U on Saturday May 23 2015, @12:00AM

    by U (4584) on Saturday May 23 2015, @12:00AM (#186716)

    This law contains some real gems:

    Custom integrated circuits for which the function is unknown, or the control status of the equipment in which the integrated circuits will be used is unknown to the manufacturer, having any of the following:

    • More than 1,500 terminals;
    • A typical “basic gate propagation delay time” of less than 0.02 ns; or
    • An operating frequency exceeding 3 GHz;

    So any Intel LGA2011 CPU is now banned, as is any CPU >3GHz. Apparently Australia is now scared of people having computers that are just too fast.

    “Technology” according to the General Technology Note, other than that specified in 3E001, for the “development” or “production” of a “microprocessor microcircuit”, “microcomputer microcircuit” or microcontroller microcircuit core, having an arithmetic logic unit with an access width of 32 bits or more and any of the following features or characteristics:

    • A ‘vector processor unit’ designed to perform more than two calculations on floating‑point vectors (one‑dimensional arrays of 32‑bit or larger numbers) simultaneously;

    SIMD: now illegal in Australia.

    Lithography equipment as follows:

    1. Align and expose step and repeat (direct step on wafer) or step and scan (scanner) equipment for wafer processing using photo‑optical or X‑ray methods and having any of the following:
      • A light source wavelength shorter than 245 nm; or
      • Capable of producing a pattern with a ‘Minimum Resolvable Feature size’ (MRF) of 95 nm or less;

    Say goodbye to any remotely modern semiconductor fab.

    Equipment specially designed to provide external interconnection of “digital computers” or associated equipment which allows communications at data rates exceeding 2.0 Gbyte/s.

    Any external interconnect faster than 16 Gbit/s is now illegal. Anything with USB3, 40Gb Ethernet, 100Gb Ethernet or Thunderbolt is banned.

    Here's the whole list. [comlaw.gov.au] Of course, there's plenty on cryptography too.

    Somebody call me out if I've got this utterly wrong, but as far as I can tell it really is this ridiculous.

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  • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday May 23 2015, @08:37AM

    by kaszz (4211) on Saturday May 23 2015, @08:37AM (#186794) Journal

    Is it just me that thinks the Australian government has gone completely nuts? Not even the US government seems to do this?

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by anubi on Saturday May 23 2015, @08:46AM

      by anubi (2828) on Saturday May 23 2015, @08:46AM (#186795) Journal

      I get the idea that a bunch of people living in glass houses think the way to protect their assets is to confiscate all the rocks.

      --
      "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by fritsd on Saturday May 23 2015, @09:02AM

    by fritsd (4586) on Saturday May 23 2015, @09:02AM (#186804) Journal

    That sounds like:

    1. somebody wants to hobble the Australian high-tech industry, so that it can't become competitive with other countries

    2. this person or group infiltrated the current Abbott government to get their plan executed

    3. this person or group tells the Australians: "it's for your own good that Australians don't learn too much about computers, because security"

    If I were Australian, I'd be clamoring for a full investigation of whichever foreign influence wrote this law.