Around 48 hours after the Census website was pulled after alleged repeated DDoS attacks, and hundreds of thousands of Aussies actually trying to complete the Census, the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Census website came back to life this afternoon. But, in a move that isn’t entirely surprising, the site continues to have issues. It’s up, it’s down, it’s up again…
Update: As of 8am AEST, the Census website was back in business. Not sure how long it will last…
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
Developing…
Comments
3 responses to “The Australian Census Website Is Down, Again”
On top of their obsolete NBN, this government has again proven itself to be technologically illiterate and spectacularly incompetent.
They can’t even run a website, let alone guarantee data security.
Their attitude to people’s privacy is also a disgrace.
So stuff it. I am just not going to bother with the census.
While I agree with everything you said… You’ll be back to complete it when they start issuing those fines.
Might need to go back to uni and learn cyber security since there’s obviously a huge gap in the industry in Australia.
The more you learn, you will come to the understanding that there is nothing called security.