NSW Police Falsely Claimed that Violet Coco Blocked an Ambulance

A good cross-section of NSW civil society was appalled when Violet Coco was sentenced to 15 months prison time last December, in relation to her taking part in a Fireproof Australia action that blocked one lane – just one lane – of the Sydney Harbour Bridge for 25 minutes last April.

During the hearing, NSW police argued that Coco and the three other Fireproof Australia activists conducting the nonviolent direct action to warn of the escalating climate crisis had blocked an ambulance trying to get across this bridge with its lights and sirens on responding to an emergency.

At the time, there had been an uptick in nonviolent climate action in Sydney, much of which involved road blockages, with the chief argument against these protests put by AM radio shock jocks and conservative politicians being they could block an ambulance responding to an emergency.

So, it was quite convenient that an ambulance had been put out by this action, as it served to validate the opposing position, just after the Perrottet government had rolled out its harsh antiprotest laws, while prominent climate defender Violet Coco was putting her liberty on the line.

But on Tuesday, when two fellow Fireproof activists, Alan Glover and Karen Fitz-Gibbon, went before Downing Centre Local Court, the NSW Police Force withdrew its false allegation that an ambulance had been blocked by their Harbour Bridge action, which has clear implications for Coco’s 15 March District Court appeal.

An inconvenient falsehood

“Initially, the police facts contained conveniently more damning statements – that an ambulance with sirens on was blocked – which upon scrutiny was not the case and this has real world implications for the protesters,” said climate defender Andrew George.

A supporter of Fireproof Australia, which is now called Stop Fossil Fuel Subsidies, George told Sydney Criminal Lawyers that prior to yesterday’s proceedings the Environmental Defenders Office had pushed NSW police for evidence relating to the delayed ambulance, which wasn’t forthcoming.

NSW police then withdrew this allegation from yesterday’s proceedings. But this suggested scenario featured heavily in Coco’s sentencing. 

Indeed, Magistrate Allison Hawkins was heard to chastise the activist in relation to the inconvenience caused to the non-existent patient in the ambulance.

“The updated police facts say there was no ambulance with sirens there,” George made clear. “This played a pretty big part in Violet’s sentencing, so it clearly should have big implications for minimising Violet’s current sentence.”

Silencing the messenger

In response to the rise in climate defending actions on the part of Fireproof and Blockade Australia, NSW police created climate activist-focused Strike Force Guard, while the Perrottet government enacted laws last April, establishing one of the most draconian antiprotest regimes on the planet.

These laws mean that climate defenders who conduct an unauthorised nonviolent protest that obstructs a major road, a bridge, a tunnel or a major facility can face up 2 years imprisonment and/or a fine of $22,000.

Glover and Fitz-Gibbon were placed on 18 month community correction orders (CCO) and fined $3,000 each for their first time offences. 

Although, on sentencing, they hadn’t blocked an ambulance like Coco and fellow bridge protester Jay Larbalestier supposedly had when they were in court.

In the 12 months since the NSW antiprotest regime and the dedicated police unit commenced operations, it’s been clear that authorities are using the threat of prison and steep bail conditions to silence climate defenders, rather than attempt to address the issue of the climate crisis.

“They were using everything in their power to stop people protesting at the time,” George recalled, “and that continued into the June Blockade Australia protests.”

“They had a hitlist of people they wanted to arrest and get onto bail conditions, which included arresting someone for having some gardening tools in a car and charging them with having a concealed weapon.”

So, now it appears not only are gaol time, remand and extreme bail measures being used to silence climate dissent, but false claims are being applied in the courts in that regard.

An erosion of rights

“We have fought the slow repression of police and the state in cracking down on protest every step of the way,” said NSW Council for Civil Liberties president Josh Pallas, in a statement issued following the 7 March sentencing of Glover and Fitz-Gibbon.

“But the fight is hard when the government is protecting mining and business interests and when the mainstream media side with government and large corporates with vested interests to stifle the right to protest.”

Pallas labelled NSW police “misstating the facts” in court as “outrageous”. And he added that the incident should be addressed and those involved in the spreading of falsehoods should be held accountable.

The lawyer added that the case provides a clear example of how the NSW Coalition government has been attacking the public’s right to peaceful assembly and to demonstrate. And this further has a stifling effect on freedom of expression.

“Climate protesters are being increasingly and disproportionately subjected to punitive legal action by Australian authorities and this has taken that legal action to a new extreme,” the NSWCCL president ended.

The Drop the Prison Sentence Against Violet Coco rally is taking place at Sydney’s Downing Centre Court at 8.30 am next Wednesday 15 March

Security Defects in TPM 2.0 Spec Raise Alarm

Security defects in the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 reference library specification expose devices to code execution attacks.

Security researchers at Quarkslab have identified a pair of serious security defects in the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 reference library specification, prompting a massive cross-vendor effort to identify and patch vulnerable installations.

The vulnerabilities, tracked as CVE-2023-1017 and CVE-2023-1018, provide pathways for an authenticated, local attacker to overwrite protected data in the TPM firmware and launch code execution attacks, according to an advisory from Carnegie Mellon’s CERT coordination center. 

From the CERT alert:

“An authenticated, local attacker could send maliciously crafted commands to a vulnerable TPM allowing access to sensitive data. In some cases, the attacker can also overwrite protected data in the TPM firmware. This may lead to a crash or arbitrary code execution within the TPM. Because the attacker’s payload runs within the TPM, it may be undetectable by other components of the target device.”

“An attacker who has access to a TPM-command interface can send maliciously-crafted commands to the module and trigger these vulnerabilities. This allows either read-only access to sensitive data or overwriting of normally protected data that is only available to the TPM (e.g., cryptographic keys),” the center added.

Quarkslab researchers Francisco Falcon and Ivan Arce are credited with finding the bugs and leading an industry-wide coordinated vulnerability process ahead of Tuesday’s public advisory.

The Trusted Computing Group (TCG) responsible for maintaining the TPM spec has issued an Errata documenting the two memory corruption issues and providing mitigation guidance. 

The two vulnerabilities exist in the way the TPM reference spec processes parameters that are part of TPM commands. “An Out Of Bound (OOB) read vulnerability in the CryptParameterDecryption() routine allowed a 2-byte read access to data that was not part of the current session. It was also possible to write 2-bytes past the end of the current command buffer resulting in corruption of memory,” the center warned.

“An attacker with access to a device built with a vulnerable version of the TPM can trigger this bug by sending crafted commands to the TPM. The vulnerable TPM can thus be tricked to access data that is not part of the intended operation. As the OS relies on the TPM firmware for these functions, it may be difficult to detect or prevent such access using traditional host-based security capabilities,” it added.

This discovery has raised alarm bells because TPM technology is used in a variety of devices, from specialized enterprise-grade hardware to Internet of Things (IoT) appliances. With the growth of cloud computing and virtualization, software-based TPM implementations have also gained popularity. 

The CERT coordination center is urging users to apply any updates provided by hardware and software manufacturers through their supply chain as soon as possible.

“Updating the firmware of TPM chips may be necessary, and this can be done through an OS vendor or the original equipment manufacturer (OEM). In some cases, the OEM may require resetting the TPM to its original factory default values as part of the update process,” the center added.

In high-assurance computing environments, users should consider using TPM Remote Attestation to detect any changes to devices and ensure their TPM is tamper-proof. 

“As these attacks involve TPM-based software, mechanisms such as user-password or PIN protection and tpm-totp do not protect against attacks leveraging the [memory corruption]  vulnerabilities,” according to the advisory.

SecurityWeek

How Do I Check if a Warrant is Out for My Arrest?

There are many myths about arrest warrants, including when they can be issued and what you should do if you have been issued with one.

So here’s some information that may assist if you suspect police could be knocking on your door sometime soon.

What Is an Arrest Warrant?

An arrest warrant is an order issued by a magistrate or a judge which empowers law enforcement agents such as police to lawfully arrest you and bring you before a court.

There are several circumstances in which an arrest warrant may be issued, including when you:

• Are charged with a criminal offence but cannot be located,

• Fail to attend court as required by law (in which case, a ‘bench warrant’ may be issued),
• Have breached a condition of bail or an apprehended violence order,
• Have been convicted and sentenced to a term of imprisonment but cannot be located,
• Have breached a condition of a sentence, such as one contained in a community correction order or intensive correction order, or 
• Have breached a condition of parole. 

How Do I Know There’s a Warrant for My Arrest?

There is no nationwide, or even state or territory-wide, register of outstanding arrest warrants in Australia. And a national police check will not necessarily reveal the existence of a warrant.

If you believe a warrant may have been issued by a certain court or police station, it is a good idea to call or email them to determine whether this is the case.

Alternatively, a lawyer can make enquiries on your behalf and – in the course of doing so –negotiate to protect your interests.

Can I Avoid a Warrant If I’m Interstate or Overseas?

Generally, you will not be able to avoid an arrest warrant by moving to another State or Territory or by moving overseas.

Section 24 of the Service and Execution of Process Act 1992 (Cth) says that police can commence proceedings against you in any part of Australia. 

This means, for example, that if police issue an arrest warrant in NSW, it can be enforced in Queensland or Victoria, and it stays in force until you are arrested.

Similarly, Australia has entered into a number of extradition treaties with other countries, meaning that law enforcement in your destination country may arrest you and send you back to Australia.

Should I Turn Myself In?

It is always a very good idea to speak with an experienced criminal defence lawyer before attending any police station to respond to an arrest warrant; as their job is to act in your best your interests and protect you against any adverse consequences of being exposed to members of the police force; unscrupulous members of whom may see your attendance as an opportunity to take advantage of your vulnerable situation.

A good lawyer may be able to convince police that it is in the interests of justice to return the warrant ‘unexecuted’ or, in the case charges are brought, grant you bail at the police station.

In the event police decide to execute the warrant and refuse police bail, your lawyer will attend court for your bail application and fight to have you released from custody pending your next court date.

Obtain Legal Advice

If you believe you may have a warrant out for your arrest, it is important to engage the services of experienced criminal defence lawyers to protect your interests and take care of the legal side of things, so you can put the episode behind you and get on with your life.

Source:Sydney Criminal Lawyers

The police act like 'sovereign citizens' for decades.

The colony's police forces have been acting like sovereign citizens for quite some time now.

Although the 'sovereign citizen' movement allegedly originated in the United States, is technically an oxymoron, Australia's police forces have been implementing this ideology for quite some time.

A sovereign citizen believes that the law does not apply to him/her where certain aspects are cherry picked from 'ancient' law are put into action whenever it suits, where the Bible can be used often.

So realistically the above headline is technically incorrect, as police take it to the next level above so called sovereign citizens, where they disregarda all law, including the ancient stuff.

Since the Bible is not an 'Act', and the 'Crown' is not bound to it, you cannot do much with it in the Kangaroo "Courts" (you know businesses) of Australia.

In more cases or instances ever published by the mainstream media, Australia's police forces act with impunity without any regards to the Acts (or law) that are in play or even 'Code of Ethics' or so called 'Policy Rules'.

They act with impunity, because the corrupt legal system will indemnify them from any repercusions.

IF the police had to pay out of their OWN pockets, for a crime, they got charged from, like the serfs do, maybe then the results would be different, but that's NOT how the system is designed, and that's on purpose.

It is only through exposure by the public, on social media forums, that more people can be educated on the colony's criminal elite being exposed.

See article from nswcourts.com.au of the headline:

Police Cannot Enter Private Land Without a Warrant If Prohibited by a Trespass Sign

By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim

Along with senior constable Rankin, then NSW police acting sergeant Fahey attended a NSW Northern Rivers region property at Warrazambil Creek on 24 August 2021, in relation to an email detective inspector Greenwood received suggesting a potential illegal gathering may take place.

The legality of the gathering or possible protest on the private property was under question as it likely contravened a public health order made under Public Health (COVID-19 Additional Restrictions for Delta Outbreak) Order (No 2) 2021 (NSW), which was in force at that time due to the pandemic.

Property owner Sanchia Romani had a sign on the gate and another erected two metres inside the property, both warning that it was private and those entering without permission would be trespassing. The inner sign specified that police were included and a fine would apply on trespass.

Despite seeing the signage and noting the fact the property’s gate was padlocked, the officers nevertheless jumped the fence and entered. Both claimed to believe they had a right to enter, and Rankin later specifically stating he was of the view the common law permitted police entry to make inquiries over a suspected illegal act.

A traumatising intrusion

Sanchia wasn’t home at the time, although her 19-year-old daughter, Maia Huxtable, was present and walked down the driveway to meet the officers. A discussion ensued, which involved Maia telling police her mother wasn’t home and asking them to go outside of the fence.

The young woman became increasingly uneasy as the officers asked about what she was holding behind her back, which turned out to be her phone, as well as when they told Maia that they’d be back repeatedly until they spoke to her mother.

After the interaction, the officers left the property, and Maia returned to the house, where her 14-year-old brother was also in a distressed state.

Sanchia later explained that her children experienced “great anxiety, distress, worry and trauma”, while she felt “grossly invaded”, as the family had experienced a violent home invasion in 2016, which involved two of her three children being chased by a man who was armed with a gun.

On returning to Kyogle police station, the officers filled detective Greenwood in on the visit, and he told them not to return. The more senior officer then noted in the logbook that the visit was spurred by an email from a shop where Sanchia had tried to print her protest pamphlets.

Sanchia then submitted a 25 August complaint to NSW police regarding the incident, in which she requested that no more repeat visits occur. And in September, the district inspector sent a message to her outlining that the police had attended the property, along with explaining why they had.

In November, Sanchia proceeded to file a claim for relief in relation to the tort of trespass with the NSW Supreme Court on behalf of herself and Maia. And in March 2022, Justice Mark Ierace ordered that the officers be removed as the defendants, and they be replaced by the NSW state.

The state of NSW then filed a legal defence on 16 May 2022, in which it admitting it was liable for the tort committed by the two officers, that their actions did constitute trespass “for a period of no more than three minutes”, and it denied the plaintiffs “suffered a personal injury as a result”.

The tort of trespass

During the 6 and 7 of December 2022 hearings, Justice Robertson Wright explained that Sanchia could raise the claim for compensation as she was the registered owner, but questions remained as to whether Maia could, as well as to whether the trespass occurred for more than three minutes.

A tort is a wrongful act that leads to legal liability. The tort of trespass occurs when there’s “interference with possession of land, including physical entry onto and remaining on the land, without the licence or consent of the person in possession or without other lawful authority”.

Justice Wright noted that the High Court found in 1994’s Coco versus The Queen that “any person who enters the property of another must justify that entry by showing that he or she either entered with the consent of the occupier or otherwise had lawful authority to enter the premises”.

While the High Court of Australia further ruled in 2008’s Kuru versus the State of New South Wales that “police officers have no special rights to enter land, except in cases provided for by the common law and by statute”.

And his Honour added that there was nothing in the current case to suggest the officers involved had a “lawful right to enter” the property without the consent of the occupier.

According to the High Court ruling in 1984’s Halliday versus Nevill, in Sanchia’s case and in general, if a driveway or path to a dwelling is left open, with no signage indicating visitors aren’t welcome, any person is free to approach a residence for the purpose of lawful communication.

“In these circumstances… the implied licence for the police officers to enter the property for the purpose of such lawful communication was impliedly refused or withdrawn by the locked gate and expressly revoked or precluded by the signs,” Justice Wright ruled.

“There being no other authority for their entry, the police officers therefore committed the tort of trespass.”

Auxiliary matters

Despite Maia, as a resident and a family member, having been disturbed on the property, Justice Wright explained that only Sanchia, as the registered proprietor with exclusive possession of the property, was able to seek compensation.

So, while the tort of trespass does extend the right to be free from invasion to family members living in a domestic relationship on a property, the disturbance of such a person aggravates the infringement of the right of the registered proprietor, rather than permitting that person to sue also.

And in terms of the period of time the officers were on the property, his Honour found it was likely between three to five minutes.

Damages sought

Sanchia was seeking $2.35 million in compensation. And Justice Wright outlined that even though the trespass lasted for a mere three to five minutes and nothing was damaged, the plaintiff was “entitled to some damages in vindication of her right to exclude the officers from her property”.

On learning of the trespass, Sanchia had stated that her family’s liberties in relation to peacefully living on their property had been “grossly infringed”, that the conduct of the officers was “intrusive” and that they’d acted “in a disturbing manner” as “they used their powers to intimidate”.

His Honour found the trespass had not, however, led to Sanchia experiencing physical, psychiatric or psychological injury, which, if had been the case, wouldn’t have led to a successful claim anyway, as the tort only permits damages for “natural and probable” consequences of trespass.

“Sanchia’s feelings of hurt or distress resulting from the trespass… are not in my view fully compensated for by the awarding of general damages for violation of the right of exclusive possession,” Justice Wright set out.

“Compensation for such feelings of hurt or distress caused by the circumstances and manner of the wrongdoing may, however, be achieved by way of aggravated damages, provided there is no double counting.”

And despite Sanchia not having expressly sought aggravated or exemplary damages in addition to general damages, his Honour allowed the civil case to proceed as if she had.

Orders of the day

Justice Wright explained that aggravated damages are a form of general damages warranted due to injury, which may be intangible. Although Sanchia’s injuries didn’t constitute this, as she was not present during the trespass, but she was due to such damages in relation to her kids’ trauma.

In terms of exemplary damages, these do not constitute compensation, rather they’re an expression of the court’s disapproval of a wrongdoer’s actions. And Sanchia was warranted such damages, as while the officers believed they weren’t doing wrong, they should’ve known they were trespassing.

In having considered the outcomes of other trespass cases, his Honour, on 7 February this year, determined to award Sanchia $17,500 in compensation: $7,500 for the breach of her right, $5,000 for aggravated damages and $5,000 in relation to exemplary damages.

In calculating the interest over the interim period, the compensation amount rose to $18,334.69. And no order on costs was resulting, which left each party to cover their own.

EXPOSED! W.A. government's years of criminal activity, gold 'doping'.

WARNING: The West Australian government via the Perth Mint has been caught out in fraud spanning years of selling gold cut with silver.

The corrupt government has been conning people over many years, but it was only the Chinese that caught the government out, where the government tried to cover it up.

Will criminal charges be brought to those involved?

Will the criminals be incarcerated?

A response could be: "The police investigated themselves, and concluded they did nothing wrong".

Is your gold that you possess from the Perth Mint 'real' gold?

Can your certificate be exchanged for real gold?

How a Trojan Virus Pretends to Be a PDF Using the RLO Method

Readers like you help support MUO. When you make a purchase using links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Read More.

You cannot guarantee that a file is truly an image, video, PDF, or text file by looking at file extensions. On Windows, attackers can execute a PDF as though it were an EXE.

This is quite dangerous, because a file that you download from the internet, mistaking it for a PDF file, may actually contain a very harmful virus. Have you ever wondered how attackers do this?

Trojan Viruses Explained

Trojan viruses derive their name from the attack of the Achaeans (Greeks) in Greek mythology on the city of Troy in Anatolia. Troy is located within the borders of today's Çanakkale city. According to the narratives, there was a model wooden horse built by Odysseus, one of the Greek kings, to overcome the walls of the city of Troy. Soldiers hid inside this model and secretly entered the city. If you're wondering, a copy of this horse model is still found in Çanakkale, Turkey.

The Trojan horse once represented a clever deception and an ingenious feat of engineering. Today, however, it is viewed as malicious digital malware whose sole purpose is to harm target computers undetected. This virus is called a Trojan because of the concept of being undetected and causing harm.

Trojans can read passwords, record the keys you press on your keyboard, or take your entire computer hostage. They are quite small for this purpose and can cause serious damage.

What Is the RLO Method?

Many languages can be written from right to left, such as Arabic, Urdu, and Persian. Many attackers use this nature of language to launch various attacks. A text that is meaningful and safe for you when you read it starting from the left may actually be written from the right and refer to a completely different file. You can use the RLO method that exists in the Windows operating system to deal with right-to-left languages.

There is an RLO character for this in Windows. As soon as you use this character, your computer will now start reading the text from right to left. Attackers using this get a good opportunity to hide executable filenames and extensions.

For example, suppose you type an English word from left to right, and that word is Software. If you add the Windows character RLO after the letter T, anything you type after that will be read from right to left. As a result, your new word will be Softeraw.

To understand this better, review the diagram below.

Can a Trojan Be Put in a PDF?

In some malicious PDF attacks, it is possible to put exploits or malicious scripts inside the PDF. Many different tools and programs can do this. Moreover, it is possible to do this by changing the existing codes of the PDF without using any program.

However, the RLO method is different. With the RLO method, attackers present an existing EXE as if it were a PDF to trick the target user. So only the image of the EXE changes. The target user, on the other hand, opens this file believing it to be an innocent PDF.

How to Use the RLO Method

Before explaining how to show an EXE as a PDF with the RLO method, review the image below. Which of these files is PDF?

You cannot determine this at a glance. Instead, Y=you need to look at the contents of the file. But in case you were wondering, the file on the left is the actual PDF.

This trick is pretty easy to do. Attackers first write malicious code and compile it. The compiled code gives an output in exe format. Attackers change the name and icon of this EXE and turn its appearance into a PDF. So how does the naming process work?

This is where RLO comes into play. For example, suppose you have an EXE named iamsafefdp.exe. At this stage, the attacker will put an RLO character between iamsafe and fdp.exe to rename the file. It is quite easy to do this in Windows. Just right-click while renaming.

All you have to understand here is that after Windows sees the RLO character, it reads from right to left. The file is still an EXE. Nothing has changed. It just looks like a PDF in appearance.

After this stage, the attacker will now replace the icon of the EXE with a PDF icon and send this file to the target person.

The image below is the answer to our earlier question. The EXE you see on the right was created using the RLO method. In appearance, both files are the same, but their content is completely different.

How Can You Protect From This Type Of Attack?

As with many security problems, there are several precautions you can take with this security problem. The first is to use the rename option to check the file you want to open. If you choose the rename option, the Windows operating system will automatically select the area outside the file's extension. So the unselected part will be the actual extension of the file. If you see the EXE format in the unselected part, you should not open this file.

You can also check if a hidden character has been inserted using the command line. For this, simply use the dir command as follows.

As you can see in the screenshot above, there is something strange about the name of the file named util. This indicates that there is something you should be suspicious of.

Take Precautions Before Downloading a File

As you can see, even a simple PDF file can make your device fall under the control of attackers. That's why you shouldn't download every file you see on the internet. No matter how safe you think they are, always think twice.

Before downloading a file, there are several precautions you can take. First of all, you should make sure that the site you are downloading from is reliable. You can check the file you will download later online. If you are sure of everything, it is entirely up to you to make this decision.

Source: MakeUseOf

Australian (alleged) C-19 deaths misclassification of flu and pneumonia

Australian official mortality data show no clear evidence of significant excess deaths in 2020, implying from an older WHO definition that there was no COVID-19 pandemic. A seasonality analysis suggests that COVID-19 deaths in 2020 were likely misclassifications of influenza and pneumonia deaths.

Australian excess mortality became significant only since 2021 when the level was high enough to justify calling a pandemic. Significant excess mortality was strongly correlated (+74%) with COVID-19 mass injections five months earlier. 

Strength of correlation, consistency, specificity, temporality, and dose-response relationship are foremost Bradford Hill criteria which are satisfied by the data to suggest the iatrogenesis of the Australian pandemic, where excess deaths were largely caused by COVID-19 injections. 

Supporting this hypothesis also is the fact that the youngest 0-44 age group with lowest risks of COVID infection and death has suffered disproportionately the highest multiples of excess mortality with the advent of COVID injections-a result which is unlikely to have other natural explanations. Therefore, Australia appears likely to be experiencing an iatrogenic pandemic and the associated mortality risk/benefit ratio for COVID injections is very high.

See document:

Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/368426122_Australian_COVID-19_pandemic_A_Bradford_Hill_analysis_of_iatrogenic_excess_mortality

AFP Commissioner Avoids Questions About Police Assault of Peaceful Protester

If I was going to detain somebody, and they were a peaceful protester, I would endeavour to ensure that they didn’t get three broken ribs and fractured vertebrae, like happened after your officers,” Senator David Shoebridge put it to AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw last Monday.

“Do you agree that’s a poor outcome from an arrest?” the Greens senator then asked the head of the federal police, who was proving rather reluctant to consider the arrest, which saw Iranian protester Hamid Sotounzadeh hospitalised with serious injuries, was an issue worthy of raising.

As footage circulated by Counteract shows, Sotounzadeh was set upon by Australian Federal Police officers on 9 February, as he was demonstrating against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps across the road from that nation’s embassy in Canberra.

Indeed, that Sotounzadeh suffered fractured bones and was rendered unconscious due to officers setting upon him, for peacefully protesting the IRGC over the months-long repressions its subjected Iranians to, has led to the charge that the local cops acted in a manner akin to those in Iran.

The clip of the arrest shows a fellow protester gradually becoming more and more distressed as she approaches her friend who’s lying on the ground, covered in scuff marks and no longer moving, as three AFP officers hover around him.

Sotounzadeh was still in hospital five days after the police assault. And despite an officer insisting he’d failed to follow orders prior to their having set upon him, the man hasn’t been charged with anything.

Investigating their own

Shoebridge raised the police assault with the AFP commissioner during budget estimates on 13 February, advising Kershaw that Hamid had still been in hospital that morning. However, the top cop appeared to have difficulty in answering any of the senator’s questions about the incident directly.

Kershaw was hesitant about Shoebridge’s assertion that the incident was a “violent arrest”, as well as to the suggestion that it involved “potential police misconduct”, and he wouldn’t confirm what sort of breach of the law the protester is supposed to have partaken in.

However, AFP acting deputy commissioner of operations Lesa Gale did confirm the professional standards unit is currently investigating the matter. And this ongoing internal investigation was the reason Kershaw gave for his slipperiness around questioning.

And when Shoebridge reiterated that one could “jump to the conclusion” that a violent arrest has occurred, when a peaceful protester ends up in hospital with broken ribs after being taken into custody, Kershaw replied, “That’s your view. That’s your opinion, based on your limited knowledge”.

Defiant after the fact

The footage capturing parts of the assault opens with an AFP officer repeatedly pushing at Hamid, who’s filming, and commanding him to step back, despite the fact, as Shoebridge suggested, that he’s standing across the road from the embassy, and the protester insists he’s well within his rights.

The police officer then lunges at Sotounzadeh, whose tackled to the ground and the footage cuts out.

Fellow protester Ali Beikzadeh told Australian Associated Press that Hamid had protested in the same spot for the past 16 weeks with no issue, and questioned whether the assault had been sparked by it being the 44th anniversary of the revolution that established the Islamic Republic of Iran.

As for his part, Sotounzadeh has since posted footage from his hospital bed on Instagram with a message written on the palms of his hands that states, “I’ll be back next week. IRGC terrorists.”

Over 500 protesters have been killed in Iran by government forces, since 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in hospital after being arrested by the Iranian morality police for not wearing her hijab in accordance with government standards last September.

Source: Sydney Criminal Lawyers

Case against sling-tackle police officer thrown out - Australia's corrupt judicature

A magistrate has thrown out the criminal case against a police officer who knocked a man unconscious in a sling-tackle arrest during a heated anti-lockdown rally in 2021.

Beau Barrett, an acting sergeant, was suspended from Victoria Police and charged with recklessly causing injury and assault after footage of him tackling Daniel Peterson-English to the ground at Flinders Street Station went viral on social media.

Beau Barrett (centre) leaving Melbourne Magistrates’ Court in December.Credit:Joe Armao

The day Barrett tackled Peterson-English, hundreds of anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine mandate protesters marched through the CBD and occupied the Shrine of Remembrance, where they clashed with police attempting to clear the crowd.

Magistrate Rob Stary discharged the case on Friday morning, finding a jury could not possibly conclude Barrett had criminal intent and acted unlawfully when he tackled Peterson-English on September 22, 2021.

Stary said Peterson-English had acted in a menacing and abusive manner towards police, disregarding repeated requests from the officers to leave the station and keep his distance, and Barrett had acted on a perceived threat.

“Mr Peterson-English acts in a manner that is entirely provocative,” Stary told the court.

“It may be that the arrest was executed in a way that is not in strict accordance with the manual, but whether it could be said to be unlawful and whether it could be said to be done without any regard to the probable consequences and criminal intent, in my view a jury properly instructed could not convict Mr Barrett of those offences.”

The court earlier heard Peterson-English repeatedly hurled abuse at police, circled officers, and filmed them with his mobile phone in the lead-up to the violent incident.

Footage showed in court last year showed Peterson-English approaching the police and protective services officers inside the station at least four times over the course of more than an hour.

Witnesses told the court Peterson-English was acting erratically, barking at the officers and calling them “pigs”, “dogs” and “glorified snitches”.

See video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqi-9zXx03Q

Officers present during the incident said Peterson-English sounded “exorcist-like” as he yelled at police, leading some officers to believe he was intoxicated or suffering from mental health issues.

One PSO told the court he appeared so aggressive she pulled out her pepper spray in preparation for the situation escalating, something she had done less than a handful of times in her eight-year career.

After approaching police several times Peterson-English was arrested, fined for not wearing a mask, and released on the spot. He returned to the concourse area and continued to film the police shortly after.

It was then Barrett grabbed him from behind and tackled him to the ground, causing Peterson-English’s head to hit the floor and knocking him unconscious. The incident was captured on camera and widely circulated online.

Daniel Peterson-English. Credit:Instagram

Peterson-English, who wasn’t taking his prescribed anti-psychotic medication at the time of the incident and refused to be treated by paramedics, previously told the court he lived with post-traumatic stress disorder from the arrest.

The prosecution acknowledged Peterson-English had behaved inappropriately towards the officers, but argued Barrett used disproportionate force when he tackled the slim-built man to the ground using a technique that was not approved or taught during police training.

“It’s not a snap, in the heat of the moment decision, he has time to contemplate his actions,” the prosecution told the court.

“The complainant was standing, talking to another sergeant, there was no perceived threat by others at the time.”

Barrett refused to comment on the magistrate’s decision as he left the court hand in hand with his partner.

Victoria Police said in a statement it was aware the matter had been discharged and Professional Standards Command would begin an investigation.

Police said the officer remained suspended without pay, but this would be reviewed.

AI Helps Crack NIST-Recommended Post-Quantum Encryption Algorithm

The CRYSTALS-Kyber public-key encryption and key encapsulation mechanism recommended by NIST for post-quantum cryptography has been broken using AI combined with side channel attacks.

The CRYSTALS-Kyber public-key encryption and key encapsulation mechanism recommended by NIST in July 2022 for post-quantum cryptography has been broken. Researchers from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, used recursive training AI combined with side channel attacks.

A side-channel attack exploits measurable information obtained from a device running the target implementation via channels such as timing or power consumption. The revolutionary aspect of the research (PDF) was to apply deep learning analysis to side-channel differential analysis.

“Deep learning-based side-channel attacks,” say the researchers, “can overcome conventional countermeasures such as masking, shuffling, random delays insertion, constant-weight encoding, code polymorphism, and randomized clock.” 

The NIST-recommended encryption algorithms are the result of a NIST competition designed to provide encryption able to withstand quantum-computer attacks. Shor’s quantum algorithm will be able to defeat current classical encryption in polynomial time when quantum computers become a reality. This is expected by some to be within the next five to ten years – and has been called the cryptopocalypse.

The NIST approach to solving this issue is to develop more complex mathematical problems that are resistant to (although not necessarily proof against) quantum decryption. Such algorithms are described as quantum safe rather than quantum secure. Safe means it is safe until it is cracked; secure means it cannot be cracked by mathematical means. Basically, any problem based on mathematics could eventually be solved by mathematics.

The importance of the Swedish research is that quantum computers are not the only threat to encryption. Rapidly improving artificial intelligence may be a significant and more imminent threat to both classical and post-quantum encryption algorithms.

“[Our] approach is not specific for CRYSTALS-Kyber and can potentially be applied to other LWE/LWR PKE/KEM schemes. The recursive learning technique might have significance beyond side-channel attacks context,” say the researchers.

Skip Sanzeri, co-founder and COO at QuSecure, has already raised alarm at AI-assisted decryption. “New approaches are being developed promising the same post-quantum cybersecurity threats as a cryptographically relevant quantum computer, only much sooner,” he told SecurityWeek.

Steve Weston, co-founder and CTO at Incrypteon, has two concerns. “Firstly, it’s around the very conscious decision that NIST made to accept semantic secrecy as the bar we should aim for, rather than perfect secrecy – meaning that it’s based on complexity of a problem to be solved; that is, it will take a lot of compute effort and / or time to solve. Why as an Industry are we not aiming for perfect secrecy?” 

Semantic secrecy is analogous to ‘safe’ encryption; perfect secrecy is analogous to ‘secure’ encryption. Perfect secrecy (secure encryption) can be obtained through the one-time pad. Qrypt has a one-time pad solution based on the simultaneous generation of quantum random numbers at both source and destination.

Incrypteon’s approach is to use Shannon’s equivocation point (in a patented technique known as perpetual equivocation) to minimize the key length for a one-time pad. Both approaches will be secure against AI-based decryption.

“Secondly,” continued Weston, “we only seem to be focused on securing against quantum attacks, not AI attacks. This is a real danger, if an AI operating on a single computer can break semantic post-quantum encryption.”

Weston has a further concern, which he calls ‘moot, but important’. “Why is it any innovation that comes out of trying to solve this problem (that is, creating an AI and quantum-resistant encryption with perfect secrecy characteristics) must then be ‘given away’ to NIST to be part of the process; requiring relinquishing of all IP rights for no reward or benefit?”

This approach, he suggests, will stifle innovation. “Why in 2023, is there no hybrid approach to industry standardization and IP ownership?”

Source:securityweek.com