Hand Over Your Private Keys: $1.6bn Cyber Strategy To Target Australians, Crypto Holders

It’s no secret that Australians are subject to ever-increasing levels of government surveillance. New capacities introduced in the new $1.6 billion Morrison government cybersecurity push, however, could see Aussie crypto investors forced to hand over passwords to all devices — including hardware wallets.

A $1.664 billion increase in federal spending confirmed by Peter Dutton designed to identify and disrupt online criminal activity will provide the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, and the Australian Signals Directorate to, for the first time in Australian history, target Australian citizens. 

Details of the new powers provided to law enforcement organizations are not detailed in the new strategy, outlining only that the Australian government will now possess sufficient capability to defeat anonymising technology.

“Enforcement agencies (will) have appropriate legislative powers and technical capabilities to deter, disrupt and defeat the criminal exploitation of anonymising technology and the dark web”

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The technical capabilities of the Australian government and Australian Signals Directorate have captured the attention free speech advocates across the country and remained a source of controversy since the mid-2019 raid of News Corp journalist Annika Smethurt’s home in 2019 over a news report suggesting the ASD was seeking the capability to spy on Australian citizens.

AFP Yet to Force Tech Companies to Give Access — Gain Backdoors into Major Platforms

Last week’s parliamentary inquiry into the actions of Australian law enforcement agencies revealed that neither ASIO or the Australian Federal Police have used new anti-encryption laws provided to them via 2018 anti-encryption legislation that allows the government to demand access to encrypted devices — with the threat of jail for non-compliance — to compel tech companies into revealing user data.

The AFP is currently able to demand backdoor access to virtually any tech platform operating in Australia — including cryptocurrency exchanges. AFP’s digital surveillance section Superintendent Robert Nelson noted that many platforms build specific backdoors that allow them to share data on-demand with Australian law enforcement.

“In other instances they’ve actually built a capability or modified parts of their system to be able to facilitate that voluntary assistance request.”

During the parliamentary hearing AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw stated that the powers provided to the AFP allowed the law enforcement agency to overcome technical challenges present in cases where the encryption of data and the use of  cryptocurrency to conceal payments made it difficult to capture evidence.

The new powers set to be provided to Australian law enforcement will further enhance the capability of the Australian Government to demand the passwords and private keys of users, regardless of how or why data is encrypted — potentially forcing cryptocurrency holders to divulge the private keys to their devices.