[marcus_holmes]

Or you could just ensure that you don't have access to production systems in your job. Which you shouldn't have as a developer anyway. And that any code you write is reviewed before it is put into production. Which it should be anyway.

And if they do try it, any of your non-Australian colleagues who review your code can immediately raise the alarm.

The law is ridiculous not only because of all the points they're making, but also because it just doesn't work in a modern, distributed, company. They need to compel the entire dev team to do as they wish to avoid it being stopped at some point, and if just one of those devs are not Australian (or even not living in Australia) then the secrecy part is blown and the company can take preventative action to stop this happening.

Australia has just ensured that every single Australian tech company needs a non-Australian to review its code. An absolute decrease in Australian security. The Law of Unintended Consequences strikes agan.

[fit2rule]

>Or you could just ensure that you don't have access to production systems in your job.

Okay, so this just pushes the problem onto someone elses plate - the operator/sysadmin. I've known a few Australian operators. The law doesn't specifically target 'only people who can write code' - it applies to anyone who has access to the systems the Australian kooks and spooks want to infiltrate.

[marcus_holmes]

kinda, but the important bit is that it pushes the problem onto both of them. The dev has to write the code, and then the sysadmin has to deploy it. And they have to communicate to do that. The secret is not so secret any more. By the time everyone else is involved in deploying it, testing it, paying for the extra traffic, etc... it's not a secret any more.