Australia | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Australia's House of Representatives has finally passed the "Telecommunications Assistance and Access Bill 2018," also known as the Anti-Encryption Bill , on Thursday that would now allow law enforcement to force Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Signal, and other tech giants to help them access encrypted communications. The Australian government argues the new legislation is important for national security and an essential tool to help law enforcement and security agencies fight serious offenses such as crime, terrorist attacks, drug trafficking, smuggling, and sexual exploitation of children. Since the bill had support from both major parties (the Coalition and Labor), the upper house could vote in support of the Assistance and Access Bill to make it law, which is expected to come into effect immediately during the next session of parliament in early 2019. Although the new legislation does not properly clarify specifics around the potential power that the Assistance

Secret and highly sensitive and $630 million building blueprints outlining the layout of Australia's top spy agency's new headquarters have been stolen by Chinese hackers. According to a report by the ABC 's Four Corners, the blueprints included floor plans, communications cabling, server locations and the security systems. The cyber attack, launched on a contractor involved in work at the site, is one of the reasons completion of the new building has been delayed. Companies including BlueScope Steel and Adelaide-based Codan, which makes radios for military and intelligence agencies, are also said have been targeted by the Chinese. Under this major hacking operations, hackers successfully breached the Defence Department's classified email system, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. A separate attack on the Defence Department involved an employee sending a highly classified document from his des