Tech companies ranging from internet providers such as Telstra to device-makers like Apple could be forced to help law enforcement agencies crack into encrypted communications under new laws unveiled by the Turnbull government on Tuesday.
The laws are designed to prevent situations like the San Bernardino case, where US investigators fought Apple in a drawn-out court case to crack a terror suspect’s iPhone.
Australia’s domestic spy agency ASIO claims 90 per cent of its ‘priority cases’ involve some form of encryption, while over 90 per cent of data intercepted by the federal police are also encrypted.
Cybersecurity minister Angus Taylor said the government could not “risk giving criminals a way of hiding”.
“We need legislation in place whereby companies can work with government to ensure that we can get access to the data we need to prosecute and investigate serious crimes.”
The draft laws were unveiled on Tuesday but could still be amended and are yet to pass the parliament.
They would give police and intelligence agencies the ability to ask companies for voluntary assistance with lifting a form of encryption, facilitating “access” to devices, or to conceal the fact that agencies have undertaken a covert operation.
The head of a spy agency can request the voluntary decryption themselves.
But the attorney-general – currently Christian Porter – can issue a “technical capability notice” that forces the company to “build a new capability” to give assistance.
The notice cannot force the company to remove encryption. The government has long insisted it would not create “backdoors” in secure communications.
The laws cover a broad range of companies, from telcos and device-makers right down to companies that make tech components.
