Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

The main purpose of the Cybercrime Legislation Amendment Bill 2011 before the House today is to protect Australians from cybercrime by ensuring that our legislation meets the requirements to allow Australia to join the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, also known as the convention. Only after Australian legislation is compliant can Australia accede to this convention. The bill amends the Telecommunications (Interceptions and Access) Act 1979, the Criminal Code Act 1995, the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act 1987 and the Telecommunications Act 1997. The convention, which came into force in July 2004, is the only binding international treaty on cybercrime. It serves both as a guide for nations developing comprehensive national legislation on cybercrime and as a framework for international cooperation between signatory countries.

The convention promotes an internationally coordinated approach to cybercrime by requiring countries to criminalise offences, including computer related offences such as forgery and fraud, content related offences such as child pornography, illegal access to computer systems, illegal interception and data interference and offences related to the infringement of copyright and other related rights. It also establishes procedures to make international investigations more efficient and helps facilitate international cooperation by helping authorities from one country to collect data in another country. By joining the convention, Australian agencies will have greater access to information stored overseas on the investigation of cybercrime and crimes committed using the internet.

There are a number of important protections in this bill. Agencies can only access information from a carrier with a relevant warrant. Warrants are only available to investigate serious crimes, which are those with a three-year imprisonment or more than a $19,800 fine for individuals or a $99,000 fine for non-individuals. Warrants will also be available for obtaining evidence relating to national security, espionage, terrorism, foreign interference and border integrity.

In each case a number of tests must be satisfied to obtain a warrant, such as balancing privacy considerations, determining that there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the carrier holds the relevant communications and that the information that would be obtained would likely assist in investigations. Agencies will be required to report on the number of preservation notices issued and to keep copies of those notices. Use of preservation powers by agencies will be subject to oversight by the Commonwealth Ombudsman and the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security.

The proliferation of digital technology and the convergence of computing and communication devices have really transformed the way that we do business and the way that we socialise. But they have also provided a very wide range of risks to be exploited for criminal purposes, and the internet provides a very vast pool of potential victims for many online scams. Digital photography also allows large volumes of child exploitation material to be distributed globally. Digital media may be copied and shared, allowing widespread copyright infringement. In fact, many social networking sites are often used to menace and harass.

Our increasing dependence on computers and digital networks makes the technology itself a tempting target and gives rise to the very real potential for cyberterrorism and espionage. The sheer number of people online provides an unprecedented pool of potential offenders and victims. There is estimated to be approximately two billion people connected to the internet which, of course, is about 30 per cent of the world's population. In fact, the social networking site Facebook has 500 million active users alone.

Although not evenly spread, the uptake of technology continues to increase in most countries. In the developing world, for example, mobile cellular usage rates were estimated to be at 68 per cent by the end of 2010. Not surprisingly, of course, with this massive growth in the take-up of new technology cybercrime is the fastest-growing crime in the world, with millions of people affected every day. The most common form of cybercrime is, of course, online fraud which means any type of fraud scheme that uses email, websites, chat rooms or message boards to present fraudulent solicitations to prospective victims. Some forms of online fraud include internet banking fraud, scams and identity theft.

Internet banking fraud is fraud or theft committed using online technology to illegally remove money from or transfer it to a different bank account. One of the most common types of internet banking fraud is called 'phishing'. Phishing involves using a form of spam to fraudulently gain access to people's internet banking details. The term 'phishing' refers to the use of spam emails purporting to be from a bank. In this way criminals phish for legitimate bank customers' login information.

Criminals send out millions of these fraudulent emails to random email addresses in the hope of luring unsuspecting innocent persons into providing their personal banking details. Typically, a phishing email will ask an internet banking customer to follow a link to a fake banking website and to enter his or her personal banking details. If the link is followed the victim also downloads a malicious program which captures his or her keyboard strokes, including any typed information such as banking login details, and then sends them on to a third party. As well as targeting internet banking customers, phishing emails may target online auction sites or other online payment facilities. The AFP works with the financial sector, internet security industries and relevant organisations to investigate crimes associated with phishing emails.

Another type of internet fraud is the internet scam. Of course, we are all very familiar with these particular scams. A good example is the Nigerian letter scam, which asks the potential victim to forward their bank account details and a small sum of money in order that a larger sum of money held in Nigeria may be put into their account. We also have the lottery scam which involves fake notices of lottery wins. The winner just has to provide sensitive personal information such as their name, residential address, occupation and position. The scammer then asks the victim for a small fee to ensure that their million-dollar windfall can be deposited into their bank account. Criminals send out millions of these fraudulent spam emails to random email addresses in the hope of enticing someone to respond. Of course, another very serious type of cybercrime is that of identity theft, and that can occur in many ways—for example, having your entire identity assumed by another person to open bank accounts. While technological advances such as the internet have improved communications and the ease of doing business, the downside is that fraudsters and other criminals may have a lot more opportunities to obtain details about us and our personal lives. Victims of identity theft bear significant financial and emotional costs and often experience difficulties in regaining control of their identity and restoring their credit rating. In 2007, the Australian Bureau of Statistics conducted a survey on personal fraud. The findings indicated that around half a million Australians experienced some form of identity fraud in the 12 months preceding the survey.

One of the most insidious forms of cybercrime is, of course, child pornography. Protecting children, stopping the electronic distribution of child pornography and punishing those responsible form one of the most important applications of online policing. The success the AFP has had in prosecuting cybercrime can be seen in the very outstanding success of Operation Rescue, which concluded in March this year. Operation Rescue has seen almost 200 suspected child sex offenders arrested and 230 children rescued, following one of the biggest investigations of its kind so far by law enforcement agencies across the world.

The AFP has removed four children from harmful situations and arrested 31 suspected offenders since the operation commenced in 2007. The suspects were members of an online child abuse forum with thousands of members worldwide. The AFP began the investigation in August 2007. It was a three-year investigation, spanning the globe, which revealed several of the internet addresses coming from Australian internet service providers. In the words of AFP Manager Investigations of the High Tech Crime Operations, Grant Edwards:

With over 200 children removed from harm globally, we imagine an even larger number of children were safeguarded elsewhere in the world; however we will never know the total figure due to it being such a limitless crime.

Commander Edwards went on to say of Operation Rescue:

This demonstrates that global law enforcement is working together internationally to protect children wherever they may be in the world.

At the end of the day, our goal is simple: child safety.

We can certainly see how important it is for Australia's law enforcement agencies to work cooperatively with other agencies around the world to work together to help fight cybercrime. An increasing cyberthreat means that no nation alone can effectively overcome this problem and international cooperation is absolutely essential, and accession to the convention will demonstrate Australia's commitment to actively engage in international efforts to combat cybercrime and complement the Australian government's broader policy agenda on cybercrime and cybersafety and security.

Acceding to the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime will ensure that Australia's laws and arrangements are consistent with international best practice and it will really improve Australia's ability to engage internationally to combat cybercrime. This is a very, very important step to increasing the power of Australian investigators to effectively combat cybercrime and all the threats that it poses, by absolutely ensuring our increased international cooperation. I commend the bill to the House.

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