E-Governance in Australia
In the current world, the transition of most of the basic connectivity and communication has transformed itself into a place where people can reach out to anyone through the utilization of the Internet. Not only is it interpersonal in nature but it has now become something huger to a point where governments can directly run major functions through the utilization of the connectivity of the Internet (Bindu, Sankar and Kumar 2019). Known as the concept of e-government or east governance it is considered as the usage of information and communication technology by the government of any country to provide as well as facilitate any form of government service or exchange of information communication transaction as well as integration of various standalone system and services. Within the system of e-governance, there are different factors to be considered, the focus being 4 different types which our government to citizen, government to business, government to employees, and government to government.
The possibility and the limitations of e-governance have crossed any sense of limitation with the change of perspective that has taken place in the past 2 years due to the COVID-19 pandemic (Lee-Geiller and Lee 2019). Not only has the government been able to directly stay in contact and create proper analysis, as well as connectivity with the general public e-governance, is also considered one of the most efficient ways through which the general public can get in touch with the government itself. Among all different considerations, e-governance specifically in Australia is considered one of the most advanced in nature. The reason behind the same can often be contributed to the rapid digital transformation as well as investment made by government departments in services by the federal government itself in mid-2010 (Oliveira, Oliver and Ramalhinho 2020).
The general public is not only able to lodge tax returns and apply for prospects like income support and access their digital medical records online from their own home as well as their smartphone it goes above and beyond in supporting and benefiting the investment of the general public by improving its efficiency as well as reducing cost and the enhancement of the accuracy of data collection and reporting compliances. Among the different departments that are dedicated and are easily functional with the utilization of the transformation of most prospective governance, one particular motion of the government has been able to create a more relevant impact due to this particular connectivity of e-governance (Thabit and Jasim 2019).
The following essay will focus on analyzing and understanding the Online Safety Act of 2021, which was commenced in early 2022. The focus of the following essay will be to analyze the particular act and the different instances and activities that lead to the implementation of the same on a national scale as well as active on state policy and local government level at the same time. The understanding of the following activities and its requirement can only be made through the realization of the need for a focused legislative effect or a primarily focused act that focuses and enforces a sense of policy that helps in controlling incidences associated with the same (Banerjee et al.2020). The following work will further utilize and analyze the surveillance legislation amendment act of 2021, which focuses on addressing more major criminal activities in the country.
Cybercrime in Australia
Cybercrime, which can be considered as any criminal activity that is conducted on any online platform, is becoming a very common phenomenon over the past few years. The universal reason behind the increasing number of cases of cybercrime globally is dedicated to the very fact that most of the prominently associated jobs with financial and personalized assessment and the choice-making of people are done online (Yar and Steinmetz 2019). From banking to storage of personal details as well as personal documentation is now conducted freely online due to the very elaborate technological advancement in the particular field. Apart from that, the increasing amount of connectivity among people has also led to the concept of online payment becoming a very common phenomenon at this time and has almost replaced monetary income, best cash, which can also be referred to as hard cash in the current world (Monteith et al.2021). Not only that quotes the generalized burden of the economy over the cyberspace but also the very fact that the social media platforms have dominated the entire social retrospective people’s life most of this social interaction that people engage in takes place online and more than 50% of the general human population of the planet is at present active on any one of the social media platforms.
This level of exposure to the online world has led to a sense of opening over its vulnerability that has led to the increase in cybercrime. Cybercrimes at present are not only connected to stealing people’s identities or people’s monetary and property-based documentation but direct crimes like fraud and connectivity into activities that are associated with various criminal as well as terrorist offenses are all part of the world of online creation. It holds no sense of limitation and can impact any prospect of any human’s life (Anderson et al.2019).
The constantly transforming and developing technological world of Australia is also no exception to the concept of cybercrimes. In the financial year 2020-2021, more than 67,500 cybercrime reports were made utilizing cyber reporting and an increase of nearly 30% from the previous financial here has been noted (Martin 2021). Australia is one of the countries that still prominently records a lower number of cases of cybercrime and is still considering increasing the cases of cybercrime at a higher rate in the past few years. In terms of global perspective, more than 800,000 cases of cybercrime where people get hacked happen globally (Cross et al.2021). The amount of money that is exported from people’s online accounts is still uncountable to this very point.
When talking about the different level of cybersecurity that is taken into consideration by the Australian government, the most recent past legislation that focuses on the idea of securing the online world for the general population of the country comes through the online Safety Act of 2021 (O’Neill 2022). Passed by the parliament to be commenced from 23rd January 2022, the act focuses on building upon the past existing online regulatory framework, which was established through the enhancing online Safety Act in the year 2015, and focuses on creating an additional compliance obligation. The most integral prospect of the same is to focus on some peculiar cybercrime issues and understand what can be done to help secure the online world for the general population. The focus of the Safety Act of 2021 is to create more prominent obligations over different additional compliances that are integral to be noted (Harris, Dragiewicz, and Woodlock 2022).
Online Safety Act of 2021
How the Act has been used in the past?
The first edition of the act comes through addressing harmful content. The act creates a scheme that is one of its kind in terms of focusing on Australian adults. Through the act, independent regulatory east safety can require the removal of adult cyber abuse material if it is satisfied that the material in consideration can hold itself to cause serious harm to the individual or any other person in question (Wilkinson 2021). It can be any other kind of harm from reputational harm to even psychological harm, all can be considered in the following situation. If in case the complaint has not led to the removal of the content itself, the person in question can apply for civil penalties on both those who post any of the content and providers of the service where the following content can be appearing. This will not only create an instant provider to comply with removal notice if it has not been amended within the 48 to 24 hours to rapidly address the following content.
In the following case, the whole question begins with the person who experiences adult cyber abuse reporting the matter to the provider before seeking any kind of assistance from safety. There are different kinds of considerations put forth for the people who do not comply with the prominent actions that will be taken against people who violate the adult cyber safety abuse progression through the act (Ford-Gilboe et al. 2020).
The other prominent change and addition in its nature comes from the protection of children. One of the most harmful effects of the current cybercrime scenario in terms of social media-based content or content that is considered to be based on adult beast content needs the same or higher level of prioritization which is the very reason why we have enhances predictions for Australian children with the east safety system which now has the power to issue any kind of removal notice to a full range of online services and not only to social media (Guédon 2017). This can include any online gaming platform as well as content sharing and even message services it will focus on providing a scheme that is based on the takedown of contravening material which can be material falling within the refused classification which is X 18+ as well as R18+ qualification in the classification act of 1995 that focuses on helping support children and their privacy and not exploit them to any point. The prominence in terms of protection for children goes above and beyond the removal of any material form as well as being hosted outside of Australia, as well as a priority within the country (Lee, Jung and Jeon 2021).
Further, the following activities also prioritize its focus on creating several expectations towards the tech industry. The focus on the technology industry is to meet and introduce a set of basic online safety expectations to ensure a better level of transparency within the country. The focus of the east safety commissioner is to be able to require proper service providing to report on any kind of compliance with any or all of the progression of the basic online safety expectations. Another new set of industry codes is also being developed utilizing industrial safety to guide the industry in the compliance of any other kind of obligation under the following act (Solutions 2017).
The Need for Online Safety Act in Australia
The surveillance legislative amendment act (2021)
The focus of the surveillance legislative amendment act which was also introduced along with the current act position focuses on the idea of creating a proper amendment to introduce new law enforcement which powers to enhance the ability of the Australian federal police as well as the Australian criminal intelligence Commission to combat any kind of online serious crime (Smith and Miller 2021). The prior act focuses primarily on online safety for adults as well as children in the specific categorization of different kinds of violent criminal activities online over people’s privacy as well as their economic wealth system, this particular act. On the contrary, this act focuses on combating major criminal activities which can range from issues associated to terrorism as well as disruption activities all at the same time. The focus of the whole act is to create 3 new classes of warrants which will be applied by the Australian federal police as well as the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (McNamara et al. 2021). It will prioritize and focus on disruption warrants which will focus on providing access to any data which has been held onto computers to undertake any kind of activities that are disruptive in nature to create a sense of direct transparency about any criminal activity.
How can it be better than other policies?
The compliance of the following action is requested to be suggested to all government and private-based organizations as if any kind of activities conducted through the utilization of any proper computer-based system can be detected as soon as possible. Most Australian-owned and even international companies are to prioritize a situation scenario where the companies, as well as any individual in question who is participating in any kind of online crime, can be detected easily by the police as well as the Federal Bureau (Köllner 2021). The other progression focuses on network activity warrants, which focuses on enabling the collection of intelligence over serious criminal activities which have been conducted by different criminal networks which are operating online. The best example of understanding this particular situation can be seen through the activities of the Islamic State online, which are always on the lookout for finding new candidates to participate in their activities of terrorism globally.
With the utilization and the acknowledgment of the surveillance legislative amendment, not only will the Australian criminal intelligence Commission but also the Australian federal police will have the right to directly investigate and gain transparent information on any kind of subjected criminal activities that are not be directed towards the Australian population and the Australian government overall (de Lint and Kassa 2017).
The other prominent warrant is based on the account takeover warrant, which gives the direct opportunity and power to the upper authorities to take over a person’s online account to gather information. Any kind of pieces of evidence that are associated with any form of criminal activity in which individual accounts are being involved, the government and specifically the criminal intelligence Commission of Australia will have the direct right to get the ability to take over the following account (Sarre 2017).
Surveillance Legislation Amendment Act of 2021
Conclusion
To fight cybercrime, E-governance in its respective manner holds a higher place within the Australian government’s current progression towards technological development. However, as a particular path of opportunity opens up, there are various instances where different opportunities are gathered for criminal activities at the same time. This is the very reason why various kinds of apps are subjected to be transformed in terms of the current situation and scenario of the technology. The online Safety Act as well as the surveillance legislation amendment act, both in their retrospect, are focused on addressing 2 prominent kinds of criminal activities at the same time. On one hand, the online Safety Act primarily focuses on providing support to individuals who are adults or even children in the right way possible in today’s time where criminal activities against people by violation of their privacy are becoming a common phenomenon. The focus on a higher level of criminal activity is made through surveillance legislation amendment which not only prioritizes actively gaining control over any kind of online assets to control criminal activities data taking place in Australia on a larger scale but also restrain its effect across the country.
However, in the process of resolving an integral public management issue as important as online security, cybercrime remains a threat even after so many different acts are taken into consideration. The best possible method to fairly reduce it comes from maintaining constant surveillance that is essential for the survival of the new stream of change within society and the way the government functions, all due to E-governances.
References
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