FITUG e.V. Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft

NZ legislates to legalise LEA hacking/interception

------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Thu, 16 Nov 2000 12:48:38 +0000 (GMT) From: Quentin Campbell <Q.G.Campbell@newcastle.ac.uk> To: ukcrypto@chiark.greenend.org.uk Subject: NZ legislates to legalise LEA hacking/interception Send reply to: ukcrypto@chiark.greenend.org.uk

To: Quentin Campbell <Q.G.Campbell@newcastle.ac.uk> Subject: NZ e-mail bill info

from newsbytes http://www.newsbytes.com/news/00/158161.html

Opposition To New Zealand Hacking Bill Mounts

By Adam Creed, Newsbytes WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND, 15 Nov 2000, 12:23 AM CST The New Zealand Greens political party has voiced its opposition to a planned amendment to the country's crime bill that could allow security services to hack into citizens' computers and intercept e-mail and faxes.

The long-awaited legislation is mainly intended to criminalize computer hacking in New Zealand. The country has been without specific legislation outlawing malicious hacking.

While supporting the main thrust of the planned laws, the Greens do not want to support a law that also gives the police and security services the right to hack into computers and intercept e-mail and faxes.

"We won't support interception powers for state agencies, which in the electronic area would be a considerable assault on people's privacy," said a Greens spokesperson, adding that such new powers would be much more open to abuse.

"There are serious doubts that such interception would do much to catch criminals," he added. "Real villains can easily avoid detection through using disguised language, encryption, temporary Hotmail addresses, rerouters and unlisted mobile phones. Therefore the cost to public privacy might greatly outweigh the beneficial effect of catching more criminals."

He said that "misuse" of the world-wide Echelon interception network already illustrated the potential for privacy violations.

Information Minister Paul Swain responded to criticism of the proposed laws by calling for elected representatives to pass a motion that would table the amendment first.

He said there would be time to debate the proposed laws when the Bill is referred back to Parliament.

"However the overarching purpose of this (amendment) is to make hacking illegal in New Zealand ­ I think that is vital for every New Zealander who owns a computer. We need to send a strong message that hacking is not cool, it is not clever, it is a serious crime," Swain added.

Reported By Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com .

00:23 CST

(20001115/WIRES TOP, ASIA, ONLINE, LEGAL/)

------- End of forwarded message -------

Zurück