A new amendment of the Defense Trade Controls Bill being introduced in Australia endangers research and technological development beyond anything seen before and threatens not only to retard progress but put the jobs of thousands that work in related industries at risk.

This post by Bill Rowlings, CEO of Civil Liberties Australia on the CLA website explains some of the risks at length.

You can read and scrutinise the entire copy of the DTCA bill over at the Parliament of Australia website.

One example is the trading and selling of security vulnerabilities (flagged as Dual-Use strategic goods) that would require prior authorisation by the defense department:

establishing offences for brokering dual-use DSGL goods or technology; including additional exceptions to the brokering offence; prohibiting the brokering of military or dual-use DSGL technology where the supply would prejudice Australia’s defence, security or international relations; directing a person to seek a permit for brokering dual-use DSGL goods or technology;

The current act (pre-amendment) previously had an exception for dual-use technology.
Dual use technology is defined here.

The Dual-Use List
Strategic goods captured on the Dual-Use List are split into 10 Categories:
0 - Nuclear Materials, Facilities & Equipment;
1 - Materials, Chemicals, Micro-organisms, Toxins;
2 - Materials Processing;
3 - Electronics;
4 - Computers;
5 - Telecommunications and Information Security;
6 - Sensors and Lasers;
7 - Navigation and Avionics;
8 - Marine; and
9 - Aerospace and Propulsion.

Information Security on that list is defined as:

“Information security” (4 5) is all the means and functions ensuring the accessibility, confidentiality or integrity of information or communications, excluding the means and functions intended to safeguard against malfunctions. This includes “cryptography”, ‘cryptanalysis’, protection against compromising emanations and computer security.

At present, there has still not been any public debate on the benefits, impacts and any mitigating strategies.