I just made this submission:
------
I am a business owner, an employer, a technologist, a programmer and a company director.
I oppose this proposed bill on the basis of it weakening the effective security of Australian Internet service providers, which would be bad for national security. I would like to raise the following points:
1) The proposed bill will inevitably lead to the creation of systemic weaknesses in the security of Australian companies that provide Internet services or products.
The burden of complying with voluntary requests will lead to new, exploitable "backdoors", despite what the home affairs department asserts.
Whether these backdoors are electronic, or process based (i.e. responding to a fraudulent request), the bill would mandate companies to effectively create new attack surfaces; weaknesses in operational security introduced to comply with the bill.
2) The Internet can only facilitate services like payments, banking and communication because of encryption. Encryption is based on mathematics.
You do not need to understand the mathematics to understand that if you provide an alternative to the encryption, you provide a weaker level of security.
As a result, Australian financial, communication or payment services are less secure than international counterparts not burdened by this backdoor.
3) Any crime under investigation can be investigated by existing legal procedures. It is proper for a warrant to be required to access any secure or private information.
4) Providing a "back door" for law enforcement is not necessary. This bill is akin to providing a backdoor for law enforcement to enter a persons home or business without seeking a warrant from a court.
5) Encryption is good. Encryption makes the Internet work.
Australia has critical infrastructure that can only function with proper encryption. Encryption is easily invalidated by inadequate process or procedure. This bill would encourage (or require) Australian companies to compromise their security practices.
Please don't assume that the laws of mathematics can be overruled by the laws of Australia. This would be foolhardy, and not in the interest of Australia's national security.