As we all know, the Australian Signals Directorate is now busy investigating the circumstances around Tuesday night’s census debacle. But didn’t ASD sign off on the security of the ABS and IBM systems before the census went ahead, even if it didn’t vet the capacity of the census site? That, after all, is one of the ASD’s core roles — it is the internal government IT security guru, in charge of approving IT and comms hardware and software used by government agencies and politicians to make sure they are secure. Or did ABS go ahead without an ASD assessment? If the former applies, should we be trusting ASD to, in effect, investigate something it approved? The question has particular point because while ASD itself is highly regarded, Crikey understands that there are concerns at senior levels within the Australian Intelligence Community about the head of ASD, Defence bureaucrat and former Stephen Smith adviser Dr Paul Taloni, and his responsiveness. Given the systemically important role ASD has within government, such concerns are a worry at a time when the community and politicians are suddenly very focused on information security.
Where was the ASD?
The Australian Signals Directorate is investigating the attack on Tuesday's census, but didn’t ASD sign off on security before the census went ahead?
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Why do I think that when the Five Eyes records pretty much every phone call they can, that they would like detailed longitudinal data on each resident? Would that be to match up the calls with the residents?
Just done it, took ten utterly simple, unfussy, completely secure minutes to complete online, and as I submitted the information about volunteering, about housework, about education levels, heritage, employment – you know, Crikey, all the stuff that drives policy, ensures no-one gets left out, makes us a ‘society’, rather than a market – I kept thinking of Crikey’s alarmist obstructionism prior to Tuesday, your hysterical glee on Wednesday at the (entirely transient) ‘clusterf*ck’, and your very quick switch to tut-tutting about how the Census represents another screw-up by an incompetent government, rather than it being the huge threat to our very existence as autonomous humanity it was in the lead-up. Which is all rather tucked aside now.
Disingenuous, hypocritical, craven, utterly lacking in political seriousness…next time, please just keep your hands off our Census. Your tyre-kicking has contributed to a significant degree to another battering of the whole idea of self-governance. At no gain, no point.,,there was never a legitimate ‘issue’ here – it’s been created, by the likes of your campaign, a handful of self-interested private sector ‘privacy consultants’, opportunistic fringe Senators, and of course the usual gang of hopeful Abbott Returnistas looking for any old opportunity to go Turnbull. Someone at the ABS will get sacked (and everyone working there humiliated, disdained and demoralised), for simply trying to ask us questions so our government (us) can better govern us, but cautiously pausing (to be sure not to compromise our privacy) when site-bombarded by pointless anonymous ‘boycotting’ cretins – akin to those tedious fools who shut down public meetings by shouting endless points of order – who were encouraged to do so by the likes of…this magazine. A couple of days later, when the hysterical heckling dies down, they quietly resume: resume the business of talking with us. No doubt the ABS will collect all the data with no drama, no fuss and no security, and the vast majority of us happy to do it.
Crikey’s publisher was quick to leap on his soapy and make with the hand-wringing mea culpas when some Trades Hall hall slabhead contrived up a ludicrous sexism whinge against the most viscerally acute political writer the country has seen for three decades. Well, IMHO this egregious publishing f*ck-up-of-judgement has done a million times more damage to the credibility of your masthead as a vehicle for political commentary than any smart arsed passing quip about a fat ugly Labor hack ever could.
…no security problems or compromises, I meant…
It’s whoever has been putting the screws on the ABS that should be keeping their hands off the census, you dolt, not Crikey! Of course the census was once a valuable tool, but now that it has been co-opted by greedy, incompetent, cloak-and-dagger fantasists, its supporting organisation has lost all credibility.
Only a sustained program of disinformation and ignorance can help to keep the ABS on its feet now, and it is shills like you, Jack, who might unfortunately have the thick-skulled persistence to pull off that miserable piece of work.