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                Date: 2000-11-17
                 
                 
                NZ: Nicky Hager und die Ermaechtigung der Polizei
                
                 
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      Die neuen Ermächtigungsgesetze für Neuseelands Behörden  
scheinen nicht so einfach durch zu gehen, wie geplant. Dass  
sie eine verdächtige Ähnlichkeit mit allem haben, was rund  
um das ETSI  und die Cybercrime-Initiative des Europarats  
Hierzukontinents im Schwange ist, sollte nicht überraschen.  
 
Backgrounds wie immer  in der Infobase 
http://www.quintessenz.org
                   
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WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- It was supposed to be an  
easy bit of legislation to reflect the advance of new  
technologies. 
 
But a soft approach to changes to computer hacking laws in  
New Zealand has failed. Now the proposed changes are  
under intense scrutiny 
 
Researcher Nicky Hager, author of the 1996 book Secret  
Power about the existence of the Echelon surveillance  
network, argued in New Zealand's Sunday Star Times  
newspaper that planned extensions to New Zealand law,  
when taken together, have the same effect as Britain's  
controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act. 
 
And Hager says the proposed laws have their genesis in an  
FBI-led meeting on surveillance laws in 1993 that New  
Zealand representatives attended. 
 
The first proposed change is an amendment to New  
Zealand's Crimes Act, which would make it illegal to access  
a computer system without authorization. But the  
amendment would exempt New Zealand's law enforcement  
and security agencies, working with appropriate authority. 
 
This amendment also extends the definition of "private  
communication" to include not only oral communication but  
also e-mail, faxes, and message pagers. The second phase  
of the changes will be amendments to the  
Telecommunications Act, expected to go before parliament  
next month. That proposal would require telecommunications  
network operators to ensure their networks are capable of  
being intercepted. 
 
The minister sponsoring both pieces of legislation, Paul  
Swain, introduced into New Zealand's parliament the  
amendment that would outlaw hacking. "We need this  
legislation to protect the privacy of law abiding New Zealand  
citizens," he said Thursday. "Just as it is not cool or clever  
for a criminal to break into someone's home or workplace, it  
is not cool or clever to break into some one's computer." 
 
... 
 
But even though a majority voted for the bill to go to the  
select committee, there is no chance it will pass without  
debate. 
 
One group of lawmakers, the parliamentary Green Party,  
wouldn't even support the legislation's referral to a committee.  
Green MP Keith Locke says his party sees the anti-hacking  
legislation "as a fig leaf to cover the main purpose of the bill:  
to allow snooping by the security agencies and the police." 
... 
Hager's article suggests the new legislation would allow a  
permanent "interception interface" to be built into every  
Internet and phone company's system, which could be  
remotely controlled by intelligence and police agencies. 
 
The major opposition party, the National Party, latched onto  
this. "What I am concerned about," National's Tony Ryall  
said, "is the government having a permanent line into every  
Internet service provider in this country. And the reason why I  
am concerned about that is that this government can offer no  
guarantee that those lines will only be used for authorized  
and warranted purposes, because privacy is at stake." 
 
New Zealand's Act Party also has reservations about the law.  
Stephen Franks, the party's spokesman on justice and  
commerce, is adamant that he'd want to ensure that the  
government sticks to its proposals to leave traditional  
safeguards for interception warrants in place. "They shouldn't  
be allowed to do routine monitoring of traffic," Franks says. 
... 
According to David King, manager of telecommunications  
policy at the Ministry of Economic Development, the  
proposed changes to the Telecommunications Act are also a  
result of advances in technology. The police are unable to  
intercept calls on digital mobile networks and have pushed for  
the changes to require network operators to make their  
networks and any encrypted messages capable of  
interception. 
 
Hager has argued this might mean new provisions to force  
people to hand over passwords and encryption keys. The Act  
Party, Stephen Franks says, will look closely at anything  
that forces people to facilitate interception.  
... 
The man who looks out for New Zealanders' privacy, New  
Zealand's independent Privacy Commissioner Bruce Slane,  
has serious concerns about the powers the proposed  
legislation could give police. 
 
"I'm concerned that proposal should not establish search  
warrants as legal authority for remote access to computers  
... a sort of 'police hacking' provision," says Slane. "I  
consider that the exception should be limited to having  
access to computers on premises which the police have  
entered pursuant to a search warrant." 
 
"If the exemption were to enable the police to have access  
without ever having entered the premises, it would be an  
entirely new surreptitious means of carrying out  
investigations which would carry worrying privacy and  
accountability issues," Slane said. 
 
A new set of safeguards to govern the practice would need to  
be developed, he added. 
... 
The Internet Society of New Zealand is keen to discuss the  
issues the proposed legislation has raised and plans to hold  
a forum early next year to do it. The society supports the  
proposed legislation that would make hacking illegal,  
according to Frank March, the secretary of ISOCNZ. 
 
... 
Nicky Hager's article has ensured that passage of the  
legislation will not be a mere formality. The Law and Order  
Committee, which must consider the legislation, has until the  
end of May 2001 to scrutinize the amendments to the Crimes  
Act. 
 
Hager's article had suggested that the legislation would be  
pushed through the committee stage in just a few weeks.  
Rank-and-file Labor members, annoyed at a lack of  
consultation, helped ensure this legislation did not face a  
truncated committee process. 
 
Nonetheless, Hager remains skeptical about the scrutiny.  
"The trouble is that when the government has committed  
itself, internally before the issues are even made public it's  
much harder to make them change their minds. However, I  
don't think they have appreciated at all how big the public  
reaction may be," Hager said. 
... 
Volltext 
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,40230,00.html  
 
 
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World-Information Forum 
24 11 2000 Technisches Museum Wien 
http://world-information.org/html/site_index/index.htm
                   
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edited by Harkank 
published on: 2000-11-17 
comments to office@quintessenz.at
                   
                  
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