As Scotland Yard detectives cart a 19-year-old man believed to be a key figure in recent cyberattacks on various government sites off to the slammer, the Australian Federal Government has moved to introduce legislation aimed at strengthening the powers of police and intelligence agencies and to build cooperation with overseas agencies as part of a bid to crack down on the growing threat.The UK suspect is known as Ryan Cleary, a name that at times has been connected to hacking groups Anonymous and LulzSec which have claimed credit for various attacks in recent months. His computers have been seized.
The new Federal Government Cybercrime Legislation Amendment Bill 2011, introduced into the House of Representatives yesterday, sets the scene for Australia to join the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, the only binding international treaty on cybercrime.
More than 40 nations have already signed or become a party to the Convention, including the USA, UK, Canada, Japan and South Africa.
The bill introduced yesterday amends the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act, the Criminal Code and several other laws so that they meet the convention’s requirements.
This will give Australian police and intelligence agencies the power to force telecommunications companies to keep sensitive information that was normally stored only briefly before being destroyed.
They will have to store data on persons suspected of committing serious crimes for 90 days upon receipt of a “preservation notice” by law enforcement authorities – giving agencies time to seek a warrant to investigate further.
The bill will also: establish a 24/7 network to help to investigators; give investigating agencies greater access to information stored overseas; and extend the definition of computer offences to bring them into line with offences under the conventions.
“Australia must have appropriate arrangements domestically and internationally to be in the best possible position to fight cybercrime and cyber security threats,” said Attorney-General Robert McClelland, announcing the legislation.
He noted that the last six months, Australia’s Computer Emergency Response Team has alerted Australian business to more than a quarter of a million pieces of stolen information such as passwords and account details.
