Despite the first freedoms being granted to vaccinated Australians in just days, Australia’s digital vaccination certificate system has significant flaws.
As of Monday, NSW residents who have received both their COVID-19 vaccine doses will be allowed to gather outdoors for recreation with up to five people.
Enforcing this requires some ability to verify whether people have in fact received their vaccines. But so far, the federal government’s current system is exposed to simple frauds while also posing problems for those who have received their shots.
As it stands, vaccinated Australians can access a digital vaccination certificate on their phone via the Medicare Express Plus app or myGov. Australians can also get a printed version mailed out to them.
Last month, Crikey reported on how a local software developer found a simple way to create a fake COVID-19 digital vaccine certificate for himself using the official Medicare app. The ABC more recently reported that another developer found a way to change the name or vaccination status on the digital certificate. Fake vaccine certificates are reportedly being sold online for a few hundred dollars (although it’s not clear how effective they are).
The crux of the issue is that there’s no independent way to verify the current vaccine certificates. While digital certificates have some security features (such as a shimmering background which means that you can’t just pull up an altered screenshot), any third party hoping to check someone’s vaccination status will just use the eye test — ”Does it look legit?” — to see if the certificate is real.
This is an incredibly simple oversight. Independently verifying information like this is exceedingly simple. If professional sports matches and concerts can scan tickets to verify that it’s not a fake ticket, there is no good reason why Australia’s major weapon for defeating the pandemic can’t do the same. An international COVID-19 vaccine passport with a QR code that would allow verification is being trialled now — but there’s no plans to roll those out domestically.
Meanwhile, people who have legitimately received their vaccination are having difficulty having trouble obtaining vaccination certificates. One person told the Guardian that when they contacted staff at the Sydney Olympic Park vaccination hub about their own issues, they were told it was widespread: “The woman mentioned they are having thousands of calls a day about errors and they are still catching up from March.”
Governments and institutions have had their hands full creating and adapting systems to respond to challenges of the pandemic. The scale and speed that was necessary to respond to urgent and pressing problems meant that flaws were expected.
But despite nearly two years to prepare, and with states starting to roll out freedoms that depend on proof of vaccination status, Australia’s systems for proving whether people received their jabs are vulnerable to being exploited and are not fit for purpose.
Establishment of a digital vaccine confirmation certificate with a high degree of security – which can be reliably and securely scanned at point of entry requires IT competence. Since this government doesn’t do competence or any sort – unless you include rorting and lying – I think we can safely assume that they will consign the idea of a vaccine passport to the too had basket.
I don’t know, I suspect they will outsource it to a company with no expertise, pay them millions of our dollars, make up stories about how good it is, and when it doesn’t work, refuse to take responsibility for it!
That’s Plan B.
Rort, rinse & repeat.
Warning prolix at work
Cuba can we can’t due to Coalition killing off science and manufacturing
Cuba has approved three vaccines for emergency use — the Abdala vaccine, Soberana 2 and single-dose Soberana Plus, and the country has another two jabs in development.
All are protein subunit vaccines, like Medigen or Novavax, and Soberana Plus can work as a booster shot.
Soberana Plus, is also tailored for those who have had COVID-19 before, in what was described as a world first.
Cuba, renowned for its excellent healthcare system [ours has been brutalized since Fraser killed off the Whitlam government with the help of Betty Windsor and the Yanks] and has a long history of developing vaccines, has injected some national pride in its vaccine names.
Earlier this month, Cuban authorities began inoculating toddlers as young as two years old with Soberana 2.
It has also been approved for use in Iran, while Abdala has now been approved in Vietnam.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-22/covid-19-vaccines-homegrown-vaccine-nationalism-world/100464976
Don’t worry, Stuart Robert is in charge of it. I’m sure it will be fine.
The Brian Houston cult show is running the nation, FFS how did it get like this? Look no further than Murdoch.
This is what is going on in Singapore right now with 80% double vaccinated, we have no hope in this nation due to Berjiklian and Morrisin, opening up at 56% not 70% as claimed, forget the forged vaccination certificates, this is what we are in for a US UK style covid outrage. Appropriate given the Republican/Tory party of Australia aka the Coalition, shares the same ideology.
A read of this article should be mandatory for all Australians; although as a nation of voters Australia has the least informed and the most stupid
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-13/singapore-has-80-per-cent-vaccination-but-life-is-not-normal/100450154
As of Monday, NSW residents who have received both their COVID-19 vaccine doses will be allowed to gather outdoors for recreation with up to five people.
Enforcing this requires some ability to verify whether people have in fact received their vaccines. But so far, the federal government’s current system is exposed to simple frauds
Meanwhile, people who have legitimately received their vaccination are having difficulty having trouble obtaining vaccination certificates.
…despite nearly two years to prepare, and with states starting to roll out freedoms that depend on proof of vaccination status, Australia’s systems for proving whether people received their jabs are vulnerable to being exploited and are not fit for purpose.
If anyone thought Scovid Morrisin could get this right they must be wilfully, determinedly ignorant of his all encompassing covid failings; his gross failings that touch every aspect of the areas for which he is directly responsible to ensure Australians were protected. The man is profoundly unsuited to manage a pie cart let alone a nation.
why Australia’s digital vaccine certificates are not fit for purpose
Just add that to the not fit for purpose maates hotel rooms masquerading as secure appropriate facilities for a highly contagious virus during a pandemic by Scum Morrisin, or as “medi” hotels…never ends the Coalition incompetence and corruption
Perhaps the government should seek the opinion of that well known public health expert Craig Kelly who might have an alternative view on the subject.
The health expert rumoured to be circulating Anti-vax correspondence in Indigenous communities on Aboriginal Flag coloured flyers?
I don’t know why Australia the supposed ‘innovative’ and ‘smart’ country even bothers; this is reinventing the wheel i.e. it’s already been done elsewhere.
Elsewhere, there is the ‘EU Digital Covid Certificate’ as a smart phone app and/or hard copy including basic personal identifiers (in addition to separate national immunity cards) since July, all include security i.e. QR code for verification that cafes, bars, shops etc. can scan (and match with further ID if needed); the Certificate has allowed Schengen Zone to reopen borders in the EU (with random and/or strategic checks).
Australia seems to be floating down the libertarian route taken, suddenly, by the UK government in not having any ‘vaccine passport’ which will make it interesting for those planning travel to the EU….. let alone maintaining safe spaces, workplaces etc.?
Agree. Ironically, with our anti-Australia Card obsessions, we’ve ended up with far more “Police-State” approach to identity, information management, etc which means big brother is overcompensating for our inability to get an “Australia Card”. Despite all this, my Estonian E-Resident Electronic ID is secure and less prone to fraud, and more useful, than anything that Australia comes up with.
Estonia is at least a decade ahead of Australia on digital services for citizens, residents and others, and in many EU nations in how seriously they take both security e.g. on banking (up to 3 steps), and data via the EU’s GDPR.