Australia’s two main parties struck a deal Tuesday to pass sweeping cyber laws requiring tech giants to help government agencies get around encrypted communications used by suspected criminals and terrorists. The bill is expected to pass parliament by Thursday, which is the end of the sitting week. The opposition Labor party said the ruling Liberal-National coalition had addressed some of its concerns by agreeing to improve oversight and accountability, and beef up safeguards in the proposed bill. The draft legislation expands obligations to assist investigators from domestic telecom businesses to encompass foreign companies, including any communications providers operating in Australia. The government has said it is not asking tech firms to build in backdoors to access people’s data.

Source: Egypt Independent December 04, 2018 07:30 UTC