Well, that didn’t last long. Less than ten hours after its “triumphant/” return, the online Census has been knocked offline again. Worst Census ever.
Update: As of 8am AEST, the Census website was back in business. Not sure how long it will last…
Around 48 hours after the Census website was pulled after alleged repeated DDoS attacks, the Australian Bureau of Statistics limped back online. However, at the time of writing many people are still having difficulties logging into the online survey.
So the census is back online… right… guys?? #CensusFail #census2016 pic.twitter.com/Kw0cXdYhJ1
— Peter Sbarski (@sbarski) August 11, 2016
Census website still not working for me pic.twitter.com/uqno7fZF5G
— Annika Smethurst (@annikasmethurst) August 11, 2016
Let’s try this again… #CensusFail pic.twitter.com/HGSj0XZ77w
— Mup (@OccupyDuckburg) August 11, 2016
And here, courtesy of Risky Business podcast host and security expert Patrick Gray, is what might have actually gone down on Census night on August 9th — a series of unfortunate events, a little bit of excess caution, and good old fashioned Internet trolls:
So here’s a screengrab of my #CensusFail post that you barbarians are all trying to download. pic.twitter.com/XU04S91oyE
— Patrick Gray (@riskybusiness) August 11, 2016
As we said earlier, your best bet is to just ignore the website for the next 24 hours while the ABS gets its shit together. Remember, you you have until next month to complete the survey. In the meantime, you might find the hashtag #CensusFail useful.
Additional reporting by Campbell Simpson.
Comments
4 responses to “The Australian Census Website Isn’t Working Again”
Hands up all those who think they’ll get it together by September 23rd…..
Hmmm. Didn’t think so.
I’m sure they will. There is no telling which year but the day seems right.
So, I wonder how many millions of Australians they now expect to not complete the 2016 census at all?
Quite a few I’d guess.
Just bloody hopeless. I was going to do it on paper but I haven’t received my form (I called to ask for it nearly 2 weeks ago). If I don’t get the form then I won’t do it. I don’t trust their web based system to keep my details safe.
Such a shame. The census is too important to have been stuffed by the dossier project (linking names and details) and now this cock up.
Can someone please clarify whether it is up or down? I am getting really confused with all the news and I dont want to crash their site again by opening it.