The New South Wales Government has unveiled plans to give state police the power to hack into computers remotely, withowners potentially remaining in the dark about the searches for up to three years.
The New South Wales Government has unveiled plans to
give state police the power to hack into computers remotely, with
owners potentially remaining in the dark about the searches for up
to three years.
We have been fine-tuning this legislation to ensure that we
can keep up with fast evolving technology
NSW Premier Nathan Rees
The new powers are part of a package introduced into parliament
last week by Premier Nathan Rees. Broadly, they aim to give police
the right to apply for covert search warrants from the Supreme
Court to gather evidence in cases which could involve serious
indictable offences punishable by at least seven years'
imprisonment.
Judges issuing the new warrants could authorise owners not being told about the searches for up to three years (under exceptional circumstances), NSW Police Minister Tony Kelly said in a statement, with police having to apply for several extensions to get the full period.
Rees said the laws would enable computers to be searched,
including access to "computers networked to a computer at the
premises being searched".
"Police will also be able to gain remote access to computers
for seven days at a time, up to a total of 28 days or longer in
exceptional circumstances, to allow them, to undertake forensic
off-site examiniation," Rees said.
"This could including cracking codes and searching computers
for evidence of child porn, drug running and money
laundering."
Offences covered by the new laws include the supply, manufacture
or cultivation of drugs, possesson, manufacture or sale of
firearms, money laundering, car or boat re-birthing and
unauthorised access to modification of computer data or electronic
communications.
Also included are theft (if carried out on an organised basis),
violence causing grievous bodily harm or wounding, possession,
manufacture or supply of false instruments, corruption, destruction
of property, homicide and kidnapping.
"We have been fine-tuning this legislation to ensure that we
can keep up with fast evolving technology," said Rees. "This
places police on an equal footing with the criminals they are
tracking."
The news comes after similar moves in Europe have recently been
gathering pace. For example, in January the UK government said it
had agreed to work with the European Union parliament on plans to
extend police powers to conduct remote searches of computers.
However, not everyone has been happy with the initiatives, with
privacy campaigners complaining and security vendors maintaining
they would protect users' computers indiscriminately, regardless
of who was attempting to break in to them.
The covert search warrants would be available to the NSW Police Force, the NSW Crime Commission and the Police Integrity Commission.
