E-Crime Police Raid Melbourne Newspaper 52
beaverdownunder writes "Police from the 'E-Crime Squad' have raided The Age's offices in Melbourne today, executing a warrant in relation to an investigation following allegations of illegal access to the ALP (Australian Labor Party) database. 'Victoria Police E-Crime Squad is investigating the allegation personal details of Victorians were electronically accessed by a media outlet via a confidential political party database without authorization,' a police spokeswoman said. Last November, The Age revealed the Labor Party held the personal details of thousands of Victorians — including sensitive health and financial information — in a database that was accessed by campaign workers before the Victoria state election."
Witchhunt (Score:5, Insightful)
Whether or not the allegations are true I guess we can expect such attacks to happen on any media publicist that isn't friendly to the government..
Re:Witchhunt (Score:4, Interesting)
The Age is friendly to the government*. Maybe they aren't friendly to the police.
(The Age and other Fairfax papers are generally considered to be friendly to the ALP and the Greens. The ALP is currently in power federally. At the time The Age published the story, the ALP was also in power in Victoria, though they were recently replaced there by the Liberals. The story was about the state ALP database, though it is widely acknowledged that the Libs also use a database system to collate information they gather from correspondence and surveys.)
Re:Witchhunt (Score:4, Interesting)
The age is generally considered to be unfriendly by whichever party is in power although the general perception is that they tip the scales a little towards the ALP (Labour Party)
However, the Liberal (read Conservative) Party is in power in the state of Victoria, so even by your logic, even though they are 'Friendly' to the Federal Government, They are considered 'unfriendly' to the state government.
as someone once said, "The best laid plans of mice and men are filed away around here somewhere......"
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Adapting off Yes, Minister:
The Herald Sun and The Daily Telegraph are read by people who think they run the country; The Age is read by people who think they ought to run the country; The Australian is read by the people who actually do run the country; The Sydney Morning Herald is read by the wives of the people who run the country; The Australian Financial Review is read by people who own the country; The Green Left Weekly is read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country; and Llo
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Adapting off Yes, Minister:
The Herald Sun and The Daily Telegraph are read by people who think they run the country; The Age is read by people who think they ought to run the country; The Australian is read by the people who actually do run the country; The Sydney Morning Herald is read by the wives of the people who run the country; The Australian Financial Review is read by people who own the country; The Green Left Weekly is read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country; and Llo
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To be fair, it is true that it is a "general perception", for a sufficiently broad definition of "general". The Australian is a Murdoch paper, which therefore has an interest in enforcing the perception that anyone not toeing the Murdoch line is in bed with the other side.
Media Watch (JH), the Australian & paper wars (Score:3, Insightful)
a turf war fought through other means?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-23/holmes-hacking-scandal-overblown/3687192 [abc.net.au]
"As recently as last Friday, The Australian featured a front page story by its media diarist, Nick Leys, sub-headed, in lurid red, "The Age Hacking Scandal". It's a story which The Australian and the Melbourne Herald Sun have been following off and on for months. To read about it in those newspapers, you would think that this is a case of 'hacking' similar to the News of the World phone-hacki
database (Score:2)
Police raids involving data are like eviction from physical buildings and should be done with some guarantee, but I can't say if they were right or too harsh from here. OTOH a database with such data ought to be encrypted and put offline short after it is not needed.
Was confirmation of the Age's story their intent? (Score:4, Insightful)
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The ALP acknowledges it. The Libs have a similar database. This is like the filing cabinet for correspondence in the local member's office, but electronic.
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Why would you expect a political party (not the government, a party) to have your socio-economic details?
As the article says, they also capture health information and, as shown in this article [smh.com.au] from July they also record:
In just this post I've detailed that they're collecting information on people's:
- health
- finances
- stance on gay rights
- stance on the environment
- stance on abortion
I repeat, this is informa
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A couple of thoughts about why anyone having a database with peoples finances, health and/or politics is a bad thing leap to mind:
In this case, the political party can tailor their marketing for you.
Aren't they supposed to be pushing their view of the world and trying to convince you it's the right one, not telling you what you need to hear to vote for them? Perhaps not a crystal clear distinction, but if the info in the db is used sneakily to more effectively manipulate you, then it's bad.
And any d
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Why would you expect a political party (not the government, a party) to have your socio-economic details?
As the article says, they also capture health information and, as shown in this article [smh.com.au] from July they also record:
In just this post I've detailed that they're collecting information on people's: - health - finances - stance on gay rights - stance on the environment - stance on abortion
Most likely this is information that the subjects have GIVEN to the party, either by answering door-to-door or telephone surveys, or from submissions to their local politician. For example, "I support gay rights; please vote for that."
They will then add the voter's name to their data base. All the political parties do this.
It's the usual story, if you don't want the information to be out there, don't tell anyone.
Re:Freedom of Press (Score:5, Funny)
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I don't normally bribe officials, but when I do, I keep my press card on me.
Stay corrupt, my friends.
Re:Freedom of Press (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Freedom of Press (Score:5, Insightful)
I can't tell if this is superbly crafted flamebait or if you really are that ill informed. Reporters do NOT have the right to break the law. Employer's can absofuckinglutely NOT "authorize" an employee to break the law. They would be up on conspiracy/RICO charges.
Do you also believe what happened to News of the World was a great injustice? 'Cause I know about 60 million people who would strongly disagree with you.
Re:Freedom of Press (Score:4, Insightful)
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Granted if there was some kinda of confidentiality statement on said database, then it may be a bit different but when you consider some parties aren't too smart around here (Australia), then I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't one.
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Because of course interfering with a murder investigation of a missing schoolgirl in order to get some cheap headlines is exactly the same as reporting on whistleblower claims [theage.com.au] of dubious conduct by a political party. Right.
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You're absolutely right, they are different. The trouble is that any freedom you give the press to skirt the law for noble investigation will also be used by them for gutter press purposes.
In the UK, even though the NOTW and other tabloids used phone hacking for all sorts of gutter press reasons, and the entire country is disgusted, there are still plenty of people arguing against putting restrictions on the press, because of those rare times they break the law for good.
I don't know what means should be use
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That said I think the press need some limitation on how they act. Very few people would defend the choice of a newspaper to hack into peoples voicemails as acceptable (even if hacking is just entering the default code) and that's what has been going on in the UK.
I'm inclined towar
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The press have to obey all the same laws everybody else does. When they don't, they deserve the legal ramifications they get, same as the rest of us.
Cops turn a blind eye to public service corruption (Score:5, Interesting)
This is hilarious. There have been many reports of hundreds of cases of corruption in the Commonwealth Public Service which the AFP has refused to investigate.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/public-service-keeps-fraud-cases-private-20110923-1kpdr.html
http://www.smh.com.au/national/corruption-claims-dog-foreign-bureaucrats-20110923-1kpc7.html
http://www.smh.com.au/national/federal-agencies-lack-firepower-to-deal-with-fraud-20111003-1l5dt.html
A guy reported corruption in the reserve bank but the AFP wouldn't investigate until he went on TV and forced them. Even now the Reserve Bank is being dragged to an investigation kicking and screaming.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/reserve-officials-in-evidence-coverup-20111004-1l7dr.html
http://www.theage.com.au/national/fresh-corruption-claims-rattle-rba-20111123-1nv2l.html
http://www.theage.com.au/national/rba-scandal-to-force-bribery-law-change-20110702-1gw9t.html
But the Labor Party has a leak and suddenly the cops are raiding the newspapers. What a joke!
Wait and see (Score:3)
Well The Age are claiming that a whistle blower from the ALP logged them in to the database [theage.com.au], so they didn't use stolen credentials and can't be be said to have stolen the information. I think they were pretty silly to access the database from their office systems. If they had viewed the database from the home of their informant would a case exist at all?
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Doesn't causation indicate that the whistleblower is the one who committed an offence against this section? Not the paper?
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But in order to find out who the whistleblower is they need the reporters info.
They probably used a multi-user shared login account into the database so they can't identify the whistleblower by their login details.
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They probably used a multi-user shared login account into the database
I suspect that 'mediareps@*' had no password and very open privileges.
Like the US diplomatic papers the idea behind this sort of Db is that it's widely and easily accessible to those 'on message' but hidden and secret to 'enemies'.
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Well The Age are claiming that a whistle blower from the ALP logged them in to the database [theage.com.au], so they didn't use stolen credentials and can't be be said to have stolen the information. I think they were pretty silly to access the database from their office systems. If they had viewed the database from the home of their informant would a case exist at all?
Just as illegal as if they actually gained the credentials illegally in Oz.
Unauthorised access is still unauthorised access regardless of if the person who gained the credentials gained them via legal means, they were still used illegally.
Now if they had of been given the information, not the credentials by the alleged "whistle blower" (sarcastic air quotes) they might have a leg to stand on. Even in the home of the informant, they are still expected to do the right thing and not rifle through someone
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The Crimes Act 1958 Section 247G [austlii.edu.au] ("Unauthorised access to or modification of restricted data") states that 'restricted data' is "...data held in a computer
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Injuction made (Score:5, Interesting)
The latest is that The Age has prevented the police from taking the computers through legal injunction [theage.com.au]. Nice to see that occasionally this kind of madness can be stopped sometimes.
Victorians.. (Score:1)
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all part of our elaborate plan.
On the other hand... (Score:2)
...at least they had a warrant unlike some other countries we know...
Law & Order (Score:2)
"E-Crime Squad" Yes!!!! It can continue for another 20 years.