Thread: LOL Census...they said it wouldn't happen!

I did ours on Monday - no problems, straight through.

If you have a passport and lodge tax returns, they know far more than was required on the Census.

I was a bit surprised actually. I did the online version 5 years ago and thought that it was really well done - no obvious delays or clunkiness. Similarly the myTax experience was the same for me.

Perhaps my relatively youthful lack of cynicism made me think it would be OK this time. Or perhaps it was that this time they used a cloud service provider, whereas I thought last time the ABS hosted it themselves.

Iain

I got in early Pretty quick to do, so happy it's over.

DDOS attacks can be planned for in advance. I've implemented DDOS protection systems. While they can protect the data on a site from being accessed, and servers on a site from being overloaded and crashing, DDOS protection mechanisms typically redirect network traffic through "cleansers" so that the attacking transactions can be removed and the proper traffic allowed to pass through to the site. There are a number of DDOS vendors that provide solutions. In the absence of a DDOS protection mechanism, a DDOS attack causes a website to crash due to an overload in traffic. There should have been a DDOS protection mechanism implemented for the census site (and indeed for the entire federal government network - or the separate networks that they have deployed). If there was and it was just overwhelmed, then that is actually fair enough. It is impossible to plan for every eventuality, even though that should be the objective. However, if there wasn't a DDOS system implemented, or it wasn't tested thoroughly, then that lack can and should be laid directly at the customers who didn't insist on it (the government department) or the vendor who didn't implement it or test it properly (IBM). It would be interesting to know the actual situation.

Oh, and as an experienced IT person with many years experience, I did my census on paper...

Probably not a large scale DDOS - https://twitter.com/mhackling/status...525120/photo/1 (some interesting comments in there too)

Mixed messages coming out, some quotes say "4 DOS attacks" some say "4 hacking attempts". My bet is that the real issue is this: https://twitter.com/pihao/status/762987258399956992

Census is just a sham it has been redundent for years

'Nuff said.

Spoke to several people today about the census, and not one single person filled it in.

Not because of internet issues, but deliberate refusal to fill it in.

Originally Posted by cava

Spoke to several people today about the census, and not one single person filled it in.

Not because of internet issues, but deliberate refusal to fill it in.

Well, I guess someone has to top up the budget...

Originally Posted by cava

Spoke to several people today about the census, and not one single person filled it in.

Not because of internet issues, but deliberate refusal to fill it in.

So when the local hospital doesn't get growth funding, your local council misses out in aged and disability care funding, there is inadequate planning for schools, police and other sevices ...... you will know why.

How un-Australian ... and anti-social

There .. I had my beef

Originally Posted by Tahlee

So when the local hospital doesn't get growth funding, your local council misses out in aged and disability care funding, there is inadequate planning for schools, police and other sevices ...... you will know why.

How un-Australian ... and anti-social... and anti-nanny state

There .. I had my beef

Fixed it for you.

Personally I applaud them.

As an example I am old enough to have gone through the Melbourne water crisis' a few decades ago because, it was said at the time, Melbourne was expanding at a greater rate than the water supply provisions. Knowing this, from the previous ABS census', the government of the day still refused to plan for the future with water security.

Do you think it will be any different once the information from this years census is analysed?

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

Well, I guess someone has to top up the budget...

Not if you know the Law.

We are an online community, we should be able to fill this out and be done with it. Not that there is anything wrong with not using an online option.

Originally Posted by Tahlee

So when the local hospital doesn't get growth funding, your local council misses out in aged and disability care funding, there is inadequate planning for schools, police and other sevices ...... you will know why.

having working inside the bureaucracy, I wish this were true. Those who think Utopia is fiction are blissfully unaware of how these decisions are really made.

as one senior infrastructure minister put it -- "I don't need a plan, I know where [the votes] are needed!"