“A controversial Australian bill, which could give the government access to data protected by end-to-end encryption, was passed Thursday. The bill, called the Assistance and Access Act, empowers Australian police to essentially force companies (that are operating in the country) to help the government hack into systems, plant malware or insert backdoors. The act has garnered criticism from tech companies, privacy advocates, and others who say that it creates an array of new security and privacy issues. Tech giants such as Apple, Cisco, and Mozilla, have openly opposed the act and in particular how it erodes trust from customers in their products and services. Apple penned a seven-page letter criticizing the act, saying it creates ‘overly broad powers that could weaken cybersecurity and encryption,’ and that technical requirements addressed in the bill may not be practical: ‘We believe that the law should draw clear lines that do not put providers in criminal and civil jeopardy for violations of foreign law,’ the company said. Another concern is the fact that creating backdoors to encryption could create obvious security holes – and ultimately lead to a similar situation to the leaked NSA EternalBlue exploit. EternalBlue was the codename for an exploit made public by a hacker group that accessed offensive hacking tools allegedly developed by the NSA.”
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