Australian Bureau of Statistics to get AU$250m tech boost

Cue Oracle sniffing around in 3..2..1

Oracle who?

It's great to see the ABS finally being upgraded to pocket calculators. Those old adding machines - can't get the wood these days...

Now 'this months figures' will only be 3 months out of date instead of 6.

Anon, now that this country is turning into a gulag.

Regardless of all the known vulns they still force you to contribute your private data

They can even prosecute you for not giving them your mother's information, let alone your own. When did someone last take the ABS to Court:

Judge: 'Really, Mr Pleb, why did you not give your information to the Census?'

Pleb: 'Your honour, they were forcing me to send it over the Internet. Also, I know they are incapable of keeping my private information private; here is a list of known breaches impacting the ABS in the last few years...'

Surely some of the voting public would be interested in that. Oh no, I forgot; in Aus the journalist might get sent to jail if they were to mention a matter of national security.

They say they need to spend billions to replace their 30 year old systems. But what they mean is "Repair Australia's most high-profile Honeypot" (of citizen's private, verified information'). If it was properly maintained it would be incrementally updated and upgraded and not need replacement. You cannot keep things safe by keeping them the same.

So what motivates them? Is it the amount of data they know they are already losing? You know, the data they use to create reports for government (and its lobbyists), enabling continued, stupid decisions. Also, all the pay-per-view commercial reports that big business buys. Imagine if the key conclusions of each of these was made freely available before the ABS could get them out? This is unlikely. The actors taking the data probably use it quite privately.

The gov.au is more likely scared that it will become public that 7/10 script-kiddies phishing attempts are more successful on the ABS than they are on Grandma running Outlook Express on Windows XP.

But I digress, the real story here is why the honeypot is so rotten and poorly maintained in the first place: They should not be given a single dollar unless they i). Make the old data safe, ii). Ensure new systems are maintained, which includes evaluating why the present ones have gotten so bad (including firing the responsible persons). iii). Training and hiring people capable of avoiding it in future, and iv). Ensuring the policies, systems and processes that will control it going forward will be adequate, maintained and reviewed and owned by the ABS and successive governments.

In addition, what really scares me is the length of time it will take for all those shiny new systems to become riddled with front and back doors. No 'Influential actor' is going to lose real time access as we lack proper (any?) oversight of government security- let alone any that can be made public. Not unless the above steps are implemented, and perhaps a constitution that actually supports an individual's right to (some) privacy.

Government run honey-pots, the only reason the organised crime, foreign govs and all their robot armies do not take them down publicly is because they want them to respond to queries promptly and the data to continue to be neatly maintained.

So fellow Aussies, continue being lawfully data-raped and coughing up your retirement cash, they cannot rule us unless we are choking!