Australia’s security is broken.
Earlier this month, Australian politicians ignored the advice of experts. Like American politicians who deny the effects of climate change, they ran headfirst and blind into danger. It’s no coincidence that the same science denying climate change deniers also ignore tech experts when it comes to encryption, security, and privacy.
In the U.S., the FBI and conservative politicians have lead the fight against encryption technology. This is what protects tech users from hacking. It keeps our bank account secure, our messages private, and our phones protected from theft. Tech experts have warned politicians and government officials that their greedy power grabs endanger people all over the world. They don’t care. In Australia, this anti-expert attitude has culminated in a bill, now passed into law, that could kill any technology companies in Australia.
Secure encryption technology makes tech worth buying. With Australia’s new law, Australian hardware and software is now useless to the rest of the world.
Australia’s New Law
The new bill will force technology companies in Australia to create backdoors through their encryption tech for the government. However, any backdoor creates vulnerabilities. Those outside of the government will eventually get their hands on these keys. After that happens, any tech made in Australia will be open to hackers.
The bill is vague, making it far more dangerous. Government officials could use it for leverage against any website, app, software company, or hardware company.
Human rights advocates, technology experts, and some policy makers have pointed out the perverse nature of this law. It’ll force tech workers, against their will, to write something that will do harm to its users. It’s against everything we hold dear: freedom of speech, privacy, and security.
Harming Australia’s Tech Community
Obviously, no tech employees want this. However, it’s not just the programmers and product managers who don’t want to create software that would harm their users and even put them in real, physical danger. The business side of these companies will also be affected. What company would ever trust software from Australia now? Would you want to buy banking software from Australia if you knew criminals could easily find a backdoor into your bank? What about messaging apps? Even games, which may have in-game currency that costs actual money. Nothing made in Australia is secure now, and anyone would be foolish to do business with a tech company there.
Pointlessness of the Bill
Do you know how easy it is to make a custom encryption software? Most software professionals can do so without much difficulty. Some of it might actually turn out half decent. Any bad agents, terrorists, criminals, or hate groups, could create their own encryption software. They wouldn’t worry about following government law. They wouldn’t use encryption that is completely insecure. They’d make their own. All Australia has done is failed worldwide intelligence communities who need to break encryption in secret. They send a big warning to terrorist groups who will know to make their own software now. All they’ve done is corrupted the privacy and security of banks, consumers, and anyone else who isn’t using their security for criminal enterprise.
Causing Harm Worldwide
There’s a global effect to Australia’s bill. Australia is part of an intelligence sharing community known as the “5 Eyes.” It includes Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. If the Australian government has a backdoor into software, all of these countries will as well. As a result, Australia won’t be the only nation that can break into Australian software. It also introduces more potential places for these backdoors to leak.
If other nations adopt this, or if Australia uses the law to go after all companies that go into business in Australia, the trouble could spread. Australians could find themselves cut off from the rest of the world. Apple would refuse to create backdoors, cutting Australians off from their tech. Other companies could do the same. However, those that do comply with Australia’s outlandish laws could endanger their customers worldwide. They’ll make Australian builds of their software, keeping our software safe from the factory, but someone could attempt to flash that corrupted software onto non-Australian devices, corrupting them with broken software.
Australia could also set an example for the rest of the world. Now they’ve seen an ally violate the basic human rights and dismantle actual individual security of their citizens in the name of “security.” If they follow suit, everyone’s privacy and security may fall apart. Governments may force programmers to write software they vehemently oppose. It’s a dystopian future, and it all started in Australia.
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