news Australia’s peak representative body for systems administrators has taken an axe to claims published in the Sydney Morning Herald last week that a huge proportion of IT professionals abused their system access to illegitimately read others’ email, calling for evidence to be presented to back the claim.

The claim was made in an article published by the newspaper last week, by Carlo Minassian, founder and chief executive of Earthwave, a minor IT security company based in North Sydney. “We know that 40 per cent of IT email administrators and IT managers look inside their manager’s, their board’s, their chief information officer’s, and chief executive officer’s emails regularly and read their email,” Minassian reportedly said.

However, in a statement issued this morning, the System Administrators Guild of Australia (SAGE-AU) strongly repudiating the claim, stating that it “does not reflect reality”. “SAGE-AU condemns the article for lacking any qualification or validation of this figure,” the organisation’s statement read. “The only source quoted is an organisation whose primary focus is the outsourcing of email and other computer system management for Australian businesses. SAGE-AU believes the claimed figure does not reflect reality and that the actual figure across all industries is substantially lower than this. SAGE-AU invites clear evidence from any party to the contrary – if it should exist!”

SAGE-AU highlighted figures published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, which showed crime victimisation rates in the low single digit percentages across a wide range of crimes. The organisation noted that it anticipated a similar figure (in the low single digit percentages) would apply in the case of IT professionals illegitimately accessing email systems at their workplace. The systems administrator’s group additionally pointed out that modern technology platforms came with audit features built in, which would chronicle both authorised an unauthorised (or even attempted) access to data such as archived email.

“Actions which result in data access by any user, including system administrators, are logged at time of access and recorded in security log files,” the organisation wrote. “Access by administrators to private data of the scale suggested in the article would simply not go un-noticed.”

Furthermore, SAGE-AU added that its members committed to a published code of ethics upon joining the organisation, which contained provisions specifically applying to the appropriate use of an employer’s computing assets, and “to the need to uphold the privacy and confidentiality of material stored on computing systems”. SAGE-AU could expel members for breaches of the code, it noted — and it encouraged Australian organisations to employ IT professionals which were members of such a professional group.

SAGE-AU’s code of ethics on the matter of privacy asks its members to commit to the following statement: “I will access private information on computer systems only when it is necessary in the course of my duties. I will maintain the confidentiality of any information to which I may have access. I acknowledge statutory laws governing data privacy such as the Commonwealth Information Privacy Principles.”

Update: Minassian has provided some further information on the issue, including some of the statistical basis for his claims, in this article on ZDNet.com.au.

opinion/analysis
What disturbs me about the Sydney Morning Herald’s article is two things. Firstly and most obviously, there is the fact that it completely unfairly demonises a whole class of professionals for merely having access to the resources needed to do their job, without providing a shred of evidence that there is systemic abuse of those resources.

Take this sentence for example, referring to Minassian: “He said IT administrators “can’t help themselves” as soon as they have control and authority over IT assets.”

To my mind, this is a grossly inaccurate and stereotypical generalisation of an entire category of professional. I’ve worked as a systems administrator myself at several major organisations (for example, David Jones), and I can say that if sysadmin staff had been busted spying on sensitive corporate email outside of their remit, they would have been shown the door in almost all cases with no hesitation. I know the IT managers of the groups I have worked for would have taken it very seriously.

It is true that in the IT community, there are a number of recurring jokes about this kind of behaviour, with The Register’s Bastard Operator From Hell series being the best example of it. However, the reason that these jokes exist is that by and large, sysadmins understand that by virtue of their job, they have been given a very large amount of access. The jokes are there to underscore the fact that with that great power, comes great responsibility. Almost all of the sysadmins who I have worked with or dealt with over the years have a high degree of integrity — and I simply cannot imagine them casually reading someone’s private email and covering their tracks.

Secondly, there’s also a broader issue here with the Sydney Morning Herald’s reporting.

Do sysadmins and other IT professionals have higher levels of access to sensitive organisational data than other staff? Of course they do. It’s part of their job to keep the systems running which store such data, and they are also often called upon by management to carry out certain acts with respect to that data. If they can’t access that data, they often can’t do their job.

However, sysadmins aren’t the only professionals with similar access. HR staff, for example, have extensive access to employee data, and anyone above a basic managerial level is usually able at most companies to obtain a certain level of access to the data of their employees. I’m sure a chief executive would be able to access whatever data they wanted inside their organisation. None of this is new or unusual — it’s part of the normal functioning of corporate life.

So why has the SMH chosen this moment to highlight this decades-old fact of corporate life, and attack sysadmins? Why sysadmins and not another profession such as HR professionals? Why cover this story at all? The answer, of course, is because of public relations (what else?).

Earthwave recently hired Australian PR firm Watterson to drum up some free publicity for its security services. Watterson is a very experienced PR firm which specialises in dealing with Australian technology journalists, and so has already been successful in getting Earthwave coverage with a number of the nation’s major technology media outlets (here, for example, or here, or here). It’s also recently begun issuing a ‘wave’ of self-promoting media releases. No doubt one of these, perhaps based on the ‘snooping’ scare campaign issue, found its way into the hands of the Sydney Morning Herald’s technology journalist team, and from there Bob was Earthwave’s uncle, so to speak.

It’s a classic IT security industry campaign: Use the press to scare businesses into thinking there’s some kind of threat, and then sell them the solution to dealing with that threat. In this case, however, I’m rather of the opinion, especially reading the dozens of outraged comments under the SMH’s article (outraged at Minassian, rather than at the issue of sysadmin snooping), that Earthwave’s PR efforts here might have backfired. This one in particular summed it up for me:

“I call bullshit. I’ve been in this industry for a long time now, people who would be stupid enough to display that lack of professionalism don’t last long. Way to pump your own services Mr. Minassian.”

My thoughts, precisely.

Image credit: Mateusz Stachowski, royalty free

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Delimiter note: This proposal refers to the UK Government. It is reminiscent of similar data retention initiatives proposed by the Federal Attorney-General’s Department in Australia.

This article titled “Government plans increased email and social network surveillance” was written by Robert Booth, for The Guardian on Sunday 1st April 2012 14.09 UTC

Ministers are to introduce a new law allowing police and security services to extend their monitoring of the public’s email and social media communications, the Home Office has confirmed.

It is expected that the new system will allow security officials to scrutinise who is talking to whom and exactly when the conversations are taking place, but not the content of messages.

Labour tried to introduce a similar system using a central database tracking all phone, text, email and internet use but that was ditched in 2009. It followed concerns raised by internet service providers and mobile phone operators over the project’s feasibility, and anxieties over who would foot the bill.

The coalition’s proposals are likely to be introduced in the Queen’s speech on 9 May and will centre on internet service providers gathering the information and allowing government intelligence operatives to scrutinise it.

“It is vital that police and security services are able to obtain communications data in certain circumstances to investigate serious crime and terrorism and to protect the public,” said a Home Office spokesman, who said the plans would be brought forward “as soon as parliamentary time allows”.

“We need to take action to maintain the continued availability of communications data as technology changes. Communications data includes time, duration and dialling numbers of a phone call, or an email address. It does not include the content of any phone call or email and it is not the intention of government to make changes to the existing legal basis for the interception of communications.”

Civil liberties campaigners have strongly criticised the revival of the plan because of the risk it could breach the privacy of law-abiding Britons.

“Whoever is in government the grand snooping ambitions of security agencies don’t change,” said Isabella Sankey, director of policy at Liberty.

“The Coalition agreement explicitly promised to ‘end unnecessary data retention’ and restore our civil liberties. At the very least we need less secret briefing and more public consultation if this promise is to be abandoned”.

The intention to introduce the new system was signalled in the Strategic Defence and Security Review, published in 2010. It announced that as part of efforts to counter international terrorism, the government would “introduce a programme to preserve the ability of the security, intelligence and law enforcement agencies to obtain communication data and to intercept communications within the appropriate legal framework”.

It said communications data has played a role in every major counter-terrorism operation carried out by the security services and in 95% of all serious organised crime investigations. Any changes would be “compatible with the government’s approach to information storage and civil liberties”.

Internet service providers have voiced concern at the plans, questioning the cost and practicalities of installing systems to harvest the so-called “packet” data that shows senders, recipients and the times of messages. They are also worried that their customers would not tolerate the compilation of personal communications information.

“There would be a lot of work to establish how much this would cost and then there are the moral and legal arguments about whether it could or should be done,” said a source at one internet provider. “If we were to do this then there would also be questions asked of us by our customers as well.”

One MP predicted that the law would face a tough passage through parliament.

“I am sure there will be considerable pressure brought to bear as the proposals are debated for protections to be built in to protect people’s privacy,” Conservative backbencher Margot Jame told Sky News.

David Davies, the former shadow home secretary who ran against David Cameron for the Conservative party leadership said the proposals represented an unnecessary extension of the power of the state to “snoop” on its citizens.

“It is not focusing on terrorists or on criminals, it is absolutely everybody,” he told the BBC. “Historically governments have been kept out of our private lives. Our freedom and privacy has been protected by using the courts by saying ‘If you want to intercept, if you want to look at something, fine, if it is a terrorist or a criminal go and ask a magistrate and you’ll get your approval’. You shouldn’t go beyond that in a decent, civilised society but that is what is being proposed.”

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

Image credit: Anja Ranneberg, royalty free

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news Australia Post has announced that what it has described as a “Digital Mailbox” will be offered free to every Australian this year.

“The Australia Post Digital MailBox will allow businesses, government entities and customers to communicate through a secure online portal that can be accessed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, wherever they are,” said Australia Post chairman, David Mortimer, adding that a personal digital mailbox was the perfect complement to the letterbox in keeping with the online revolution.

The Australian Post website described the Digital Mailbox as a free personal management application that offered its users the security and privacy to receive mail, pay bills, and store important documents. It would: be accessible anytime, anywhere, and on any device; support multi-factor authentication to ensure security; and ensure all communication is encrypted so that only the intended recipient would be able to view messages. Users interested in registering for the Australia Post Digital MailBox can do so online.

Elaborating on the system of storage, management and payment of statements and bills, an Australian Post spokesperson, as reported by News.com.au, said that customers could log in to view bills, pay them, and see the history of their statements and bills from a service provider, as well as all communication with them. It was also possible to set reminders for payments to be made.

The Digital Mailbox is not an entirely novel enterprise. In mid-March a trio of business process companies — Computershare, SALMAT and Zumbox — announced they had set up a joint venture offering Australians a digital postal service – Digital Post Australia – whereby they could receive their mail online compatible across major mobile platforms including iPhone, iPad and Android devices.

Digital Post Australia offered their customers access to their secure, online digital postbox where physical mail would be made available digitally, in one central location online. Eliminating the need for multiple logins and passwords, users would receive their bills, notices and statements online, through a single, secure channel. The system acted as a personal assistant too, and notified users when payments were due. Documents could be organised in a single digital vault where they could be stored, and tagged.

Over the past week, Australia Post also announced the opening of 30 superstores across the country, in response to increasing online shopping by Australians. The new superstores would have 24-hour zones with vending machines, parcel lockers and self-service terminals. There would be among other services, round-the-clock access to postal services, online facilities for customers to research for and order products online, an American Express currency exchange outlet, and an Australian Post ATM.

Australia Post Managing Director and CEO, Ahmed Fahour said with parcel volumes growing 13 per cent since last July due to online shopping, and customers wanting to collect their parcels at a time and place that suited them, parcel locker trials had been held successfully in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. The service was being extended to ten more sites, with plans for a national rollout. Australia Post also had plans for opening a further 16 dedicated Business Hubs around Australia by the end of June, in addition to the seven that were already open.

opinion/analysis
When Digital Post Australia announced its very similar service, I wrote of it:

“Australia has needed a service like this for a while, and while there have been startups who have attempted to tackle this area before, none have really gotten that far with the idea. However, I believe Computershare and SALMAT, with their obvious existing strengths in this area, definitely have the ability to make the idea of digital postboxes a reality. In addition, it looks like Zumbox has already been fairly successful with this technology internationally. Bringing it to Australia through existing partners with strengths in business processing and contacts all throughout the corporate sectors would seem to be a natural next step.

In addition, I personally really want this service. I operate a PO Box for my business, and it really bugs me that some companies just won’t communicate with me electronically. Every day I have to walk up to the main street and check my physical mail I have tried to get my bank to send me only electronic statements several times now, for example — but to no avail. They are chronically addicted to paper, and we need an organisation like Digital Post Australia to cure them of it.”

I believe that most of these same comments apply to Australia Post’s Digital Mailbox initiative, and of course Australia Post also has the scale and existing infrastructure to pull something like this off. However, there is also a subtle difference between the two services — one which may come to be significant over time.

If you read between the lines of Australia Post’s media release about its Digital Mailbox project, you get the very distinct impression that the company is (and this is no surprise) coming at the issue from the perspective of an organisation whose main work is in physical post. In comparison, the rival Digital Post Australia’s service very much feels like a “dot com”-type solution — purely digital and purely focused on online delivery.

I can’t really say why I get this feeling, but I do. I don’t really expect that Australia Post will ever really understand the Internet — its legacy is just based so strongly on physical infrastructure. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next couple of years and if it can overcome that handicap.

Image credit: Australia Post. Opinion/analysis by Renai LeMay

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news A document published by Wikileaks on the public Internet appearing to be an internal briefing document from global intelligence firm Stratfor has mentioned the alleged security breach on Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s parliamentary computer and has alleged that similar hack attacks have occurred before.

The hack was first outed by the Daily Telegraph in March 2011. At the time, the newspaper reported that at least 10 parliamentary computers, including those belonging to Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and Defence Minister Stephen Smith, were suspected of being hacked, with government sources linking the attacks to foreign spy agencies.

According to the Daily Telegraph, the security breach started to occur in February 2011 and were carried on for more than a month. In the process, thousands of email are reported to have been accessed. Allegedly, four government sources declared Chinese agencies were among the foreign hackers suspected of having breached Australia’s cyber security. At the time, then-Attorney-General Robert McClelland said in a statement he would not comment on current operations, but said Australian agencies were working in cooperation with national and international counterparts to ensure cyber-security.

However, in an internal briefing document published by Wikileaks over the past several weeks as part of what it has alleged is an extensive trove of documents sourced from global intelligence company Stratfor, one of the group’s Australian contacts alleged that it wasn’t the first time such a hack had taken place.

“This government has been very cavalier about security issues in China including bringing their laptops to China and even leaving them in their hotels, despite their security briefings,” the briefing document stated. “Source believes that these computers have been hacked before.”

“These computers are on the Parliamentary network, with public email addresses, namely for constituents including important companies (eg Rio, BHP, etc – quasi commercial/quasi national interest). There are separate ministerial computers. At least 10 officials have been hacked on the Parliamentary network. It is unclear if the ministerial computers have been compromised, but it is likely. Regardless, the amount of commercial information they could have obtained is enormous.”

The source of the briefing document was named as a “former Australian Senator”. The most high-profile Australian informant to be associated with Stratfor has been former National Party Senator Bill O’Chee, who was revealed in the documents as ‘Source CN65′. The Wikileaks briefing on the hack mentions that the source is the same ‘Source CN65′.

The briefing document, filed in March 2011, also links the hacking to the Government’s flagship National Broadband Network policy, noting that Chinese networking vendor Huawei was being considered as a supplier to the National Broadband Network Company.

Over the past several years, a number of reports by major Australian publications have attempted to link Huawei with Chinese espionage activities, but no evidence of such links have so far been proven. The organisation has gone to great lengths to disprove such allegations, opening its facilities for inspection and appointing an Australian advisory board staffed with former senior politicians such as foreign minister Alexander Downer and Victorian Premier John Brumby. In addition, the company already has major contracts with telcos such as Optus and Vodafone.

However, the Stratfor briefing document claims that “Australia’s security guys are going nuts”. “The potential for their entire security apparatus to be compromised is great,” it adds. “The increase in hacking is a test. They think the West is weak. They don’t think the US will respond and they know the Australians won’t respond.”

opinion/analysis
To be honest, as scandalous as it seems, this Stratfor briefing document appears to be nothing more than a warmed-over summary of news articles, spiced up with a little implied international diplomatic innuendo and intrigue. If this is what Stratfor’s clients are paying for, they’re certainly not getting value for money. You could have gotten a far greater insight into the events this briefing chronicles simply by reading the broader media coverage on the issue.

Linking Huawei’s name in the same briefing document to the alleged hack attacks on the parliamentary PCs and the National Broadband Network is also simply flat-out ridiculous. There have never been any allegations proven of links between Huawei and espionage activities on telecommunications networks, despite the apparent beliefs on the part of some newspapers and intelligence agencies. And the NBN simply has nothing to do with any security breaches on parliamentary computers.

The most interesting claim in the briefing is that similar hacks have occurred before. To be honest, I’m sure they have, at least at low levels, and not necessarily by foreign governments. A series of audit reports on government agencies published over the past several years has conclusively shown that Australia’s Governments are close to useless in some areas when it comes to securing their technical infrastructure and data. They are simply not set up well to defend against this kind of technological espionage.

You would assume the infrastructure used by the Prime Minister and her team would be a grade higher in terms of security, but one never quite knows. When it comes to security and Australian Goverments, anything is possible.

However, if such hacks have occurred before, they would appear to have had relatively little impact on either Australia’s international relationships. Could it be that there’s just not that much internationally sensitive data in there to steal? Quite possibly. The really secret stuff most likely wouldn’t be found on parliamentary PCs.

Image credit: Mateusz Stachowski, royalty free

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news National broadband provider Internode has internally flagged plans to “quietly” shut down the Premium Usenet newsgroup server it has offered to customers for some years as a free value-add to their existing broadband plans.

Popular in the 1980′s and 90′s, Usenet is a distributed Internet discussion platform which still sees a substantial amount of traffic today. The system allows users to host discussions and publish files and is accessed by users through localised mirrors, typically provided by ISPs or web hosting companies. It has also emerged as a major rival to file sharing services such as BitTorrent.

In an internal email to Internode employees in July last year sighted by Delimiter this week, Internode managing director Simon Hackett noted that the company had operated a Usenet service for some years to customers (believed to be through a partnership with Astraweb). The service had been popular with many advanced broadband users and was free of charge to Internode customers. However, wrote Hackett in his email to staff, Internode was in the process of “retiring” the Usenet service. “At some (as yet undecided) point in the future, we expect to shut the service down completely,” he wrote.

At the time, Hackett made it clear to Internode staff that the change was to occur “quietly”, without making a public fuss of the issue. Initially, all references to the Usenet service would be “removed” from the Internode website — including configuration details for the platform. The change did not go unnoticed, with a number of Internode customers protesting against the change on broadband forum Whirlpool at the time, and noting that the availability of the service was one of the main reasons they chose Internode as their broadband supplier.

At the time, despite Hackett’s pronouncement internally that the service was to be retired, Internode representative on Whirlpool Michael Kratz posted a number of responses to customers stating that no decision had yet been made as to its future. “We’re currently re-evaluating whether we retire or modify this service in the future,” he said. “No decision has yet been made regarding the timing of any changes to this service for existing customers.”

Kratz’s statements on Whirlpool are consistent with the messaging which Hackett told Internode staff they should use, when responding to customer enquiries on the matter. “There is no official reason to be provided — it’s just a decision we’ve taken,” he wrote in his email. “For existing customers, the answer is: ‘Premium USENet continues to be provided to existing customers at this time, however Internode may retire or modify this service in the future. No decision has yet been made regarding the timing of any changes to this service for existing customers.’”

“For newly enquiring customers who may say ‘Where did the Premium Usenet feature go?”, the answer is: ‘Internode is no longer offering Premium USENet as a selling feature of our services for new customers. It might work for you, but its continued operation for signups after 5th July 2011 is not guaranteed’. In both cases, try to resist embellishing those responses because that may lead to misinterpretations of them. When we have more news (cough) on this topic, we’ll provide it.”

Hackett pointed out that Internode wasn’t the only Usenet provider around, with commercial providers of such services easily available online for a fee. “It’s ok to point out that there are other ways to locate and (pay to) use this service should customers wish to use those alternative ways in the future and they can type ‘Premium Usenet’ into Google for plenty of places to go,” he wrote in his email to staff. “Internode is not ‘blocking’ anything here. We’re just gearing up to stop paying the bills on behalf of those of our customers who want to use this service.”

It’s not the first time Internode has been concerned about the financial viability of its Usenet service. In May 2007, the company temporarily shut down the service only a year after it first launched, citing the fact that only a small proportion of customers used the service. However, it was quickly reinstated, following customer complaints. Internode executives were emailed with a request to comment on this issue on Saturday afternoon but have not yet responded. Internode’s Premium Usenet service appears to still be active at the moment.

opinion/analysis
Internode is completely within its rights to shut down the Premium Usenet service, and this makes business sense. I’m sure maintaining the service is costing the company a pretty penny, and Hackett’s right — commercial services are already available if customers want to access this kind of service.

However, the way the company has communicated its decision to customers has been disingenuous. In public, Kratz was saying on Whirlpool that no decision had yet been made to definitely shut down the service, while privately, Hackett was telling staff that a decision had been made. There is a conscious approach of telling customers one thing and staff another.

It’s not at all unusual for this sort of behaviour to take place — I’ve seen similar examples of misleading statements from virtually every major company I’ve covered in Australia over the past decade. However, that doesn’t mean that it’s right. Once a decision has been made on an issue affecting customers, that decision should be communicated quickly. Why not just tell customers that the cost of operating the Usenet server wasn’t worth the return? Customers can understand financial decisions like that. There’s no need for all this cloak and dagger stuff.

Image credits: Paul Brunskill, royalty free and Delimiter

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news Australia’s largest telco Telstra has promised its BigPond customers a faster and enhanced email service named BigPond with Windows Live, without the need to change email addresses. The caveat? Their data will now also be stored offshore with Microsoft.

According to a statement issued by Telstra, the new service assures more storage, Microsoft Office apps, as well as the facility to edit and share photos and movies. The partnership with Microsoft will enable Telstra to offer Microsoft Hotmail, SkyDrive and Windows Live to its 4.2 million BigPond mailboxes.

The new move to integrate BigPond with Windows Live is the outcome of Telstra and Microsoft forming a strategic alliance late in 2008. In December 2011, Telstra had revealed that it was consulting its customers about how the BigPond platform could evolve to better suit their needs. The company had been considering integrating its email services with Microsoft’s Windows Live Suite platform to provide new applications and services to its customers.

Telstra’s Executive Director of Media, Applications and User Experience, J-B Rousselot said that customers had indicated their need for more from their email service, but had wanted the option of retaining their email address.

Rousselot stated that new BigPond customers would receive the Windows Live service, while Telstra would contact current customers over the course of the year with instructions on how to migrate to the new service. “To assist customers we have set up a dedicated ‘self help’ website including “how to” videos, Q&A’s and updates on progress of the changeover. Our social media channels and 13 POND are ready to help our customers if they need help with moving photos, blogs and other applications,” Rousselot explained.

Kevin Grobler, partner alliance business development manager, Microsoft Australia said that Hotmail promises a fast, secure and reliable email service, but that the value for BigPond customers went much beyond just email. “The suite of Windows Live products also includes enhanced security features, and virtually unlimited storage of photos and documents in the cloud with SkyDrive,” Grobler revealed. Microsoft hosts the Windows Live platform in its global cloud outside of Australia, with Singapore the nearest hub.

Assuring support from both the company’s call centre and the online site, Rousselot said that Telstra was committed to help its customers through the process with answers and guidance to make the switch as easy as possible. Telstra will retain control of the systems managing its customers’ usernames, account and password management functions.

Windows Live comprises a comprehensive offering of web, POP and SMTP access to users’ email, unlimited online storage and file synchronisation through the SkyDrive and Mesh products, and hosted blogging through WordPress.com. Microsoft ActiveSync also provides contact, calendar and task synchronisation. The Windows Live platform also includes: Integration with Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system, Microsoft Web Apps, including Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Photo Gallery and Windows Live Movie Maker.

A Microsoft spokesperson clarified late on Friday that the service would not, in its original form, be hosted in Australia. Instead, Telstra will duplicate the internationally-hosted repository locally.

Image credit: Cheon Fong Liew, Creative Commons

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blog An interesting article published here by the Courier-Mail just before Christmas lays out yet another IT-related headache being suffered at the moment by Queensland’s favourite technological minefield, Queensland Health. The newspaper tells a tale of woe and completely unsupported IT systems:

“The system, known as RecFind, is charged with storing high-level records, including correspondence between the Health Minister and director-general … A leaked memo details a litany of “very high risks” within the system, which is no longer compatible with modern software and would “most likely” fail if other IT systems such as email were upgraded beyond 2003 releases.”

Nothing would truly surprise me about Queensland Health at this point, following its disastrous and ongoing payroll issues. However, this article does highlight just how deep the rot goes. Australian governments urgently need to get a handle on their technology operations. A priority for Queensland Health should be examining who made the decision not to upgrade any of this software and holding them accountable for it. IT systems are not static; they need to be kept up to date, or else they will cause problems down the track.

This much, at least, should be obvious following several decades’ worth of global experience regarding the matter.

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news The Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s ‘Kaching’ mobile payments app has been approved by Apple and is now available through the company’s iOS App Store, the bank said this afternoon.

Kaching is a new combination smartphone application and associated hardware accessory that allows customers to make quick payments from their mobile phone to anyone with an email address, phone number or Facebook friendship, as well as to merchants via near field communications (NFC). Dubbed ‘Kaching’ to mimic the sound of a cash register draw closing, the app will initially launch on Apple’s iOS platform, although a version for Google’s rival Android operating system is in the works.

Customers who download Kaching will be required to complete a fairly straightforward registration process to use it, utilising their online NetBank login details. They will then select an account to both receive and make payments from. The app will then allow the user to make payments to “anyone” via an email address, phone number or Facebook friendship. Depending on the format selected for payment, the transaction would either take place instantly, or generate a unique code for delivery to the recipient, allowing them to access their payment online “at a convenient time”.

Because Apple’s iPhone line does not support the Near Field Communications standard (unlike a number of rival Android phones), NFC payments — or ‘tap to pay’ at merchant terminals supporting MasterCard’s PayPass standard — will take place through the addition of an iCarte case to customers’ iPhone handsets. The iCarte case is only compatible with iPhone 4 and 4S models, while Kaching will require iOS version 4.3. The iCarte case is to cost $54.95 (including postage) and is available to order through the Kaching app directly. The app will also allow customers to check their balances and transfer money between their accounts, in addition to allowing bills to be paid through the BPAY system.

David Lindberg, Executive General Manager Cards, Payments and Retail Strategy, said the arrival of Commbank Kaching heralded the beginning of “a new and exciting journey” in mobile payments and NFC technology. “Commonwealth Bank is delighted and proud to lead innovation in this space, delivering a world-first app that we believe will help to transform the industry,” said Lindberg in a statement this afternoon.

“The anticipation and appetite for this app has shown that Australia is one of the earliest adopting markets in the world. We’re confident Commbank Kaching will become the most popular banking app in Australiam” he added. Some 18,500 people had pre-registered to download Kaching when it became available. “This is just the first step in an evolving journey. Commonwealth Bank plans to roll out regular updates, with further enhancements and functionality of Commbank Kaching in the coming months.” Lindberg added.

Along with similar apps such as ANZ Bank’s goMoney system and Pollenizer’s Pygg, Kaching represents a growing interest in the use of payments technology in Australia which do not directly require users to directly transfer money into each others’ accounts; focusing much more on social networking credentials than financial account details.

Image credit: Still from a CBA video

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news The Queensland-based Courier Mail newspaper revealed this week that the state’s Labor Government has spent $46 million on its whole of government email platform, despite it so far catering to just 2,000 accounts.

Ros Bates, LNP Shadow Minister for Information and Communication Technology called Labor’s ‘IDES’ (Identity, Directory and Email Services) program a prime example of Labor’s long-term waste and mismanagement. “The Bligh government’s pattern of monumental waste continues. The $23,000 cost per user is the price of a family car,” said Bates.

The Courier-Mail reported on Tuesday that only 2000 people had signed up to use the system, which actually needs 81,000 users to break even. Still, Simon Finn, Information and Communication Technology Minister reportedly said that the project is within budget, and that the number of users, which is rising every week, is slated to reach 53,000 by the end of 2013.

Bates said that a similar type of waste had occurred with the Health payroll debacle when Queensland Health had in effect declared themselves exempt from good project management disciplines, project governance and pragmatic business process reform. With no Minister having been held responsible, Bates said that costs and charges were being passed on to taxpayers who were already struggling with the Bligh government’s increasing costs of living.

“For every hundred thousand dollars wasted, there are frontline service people who cannot be employed in our communities, child safety, schools and hospitals; there are resources and equipment that cannot be purchased for operating theatres, classrooms, or youth detention centres,” stated Bates.

In June 2010, Queensland Auditor-General Glenn Poole had also slammed the handling of the three huge Queensland Government technology consolidation projects, including the state’s ICT Consolidation Program (ICTC), the IDES project and the Corporate Solutions Program. The IDES project had already been delayed in implementation from the first quarter of 2009 to August 2009, after its launch in July 2008, as reported in ZDNet.

Bates lambasted the Bligh government as being arrogant and careless about taxpayer funds after 20 years in power. She accused the government of having wasted numerous chances to get situations like these under control.

“The Minister’s comment that it doesn’t matter because ‘it’s all the Government’s money’ shows how out of touch this government has become,” Bates said. “It is not Government money, it’s taxpayer money and it’s part of the booming debt soaring toward $85 billion which has to be paid back through taxes and charges on hard strapped Queensland families. Labor got another chance last time. Not again. Not this time,” she added.

opinion/analysis
You would think — you would really think — that this was one project that the Queensland Government couldn’t easily stuff up. After all, what they are basically doing here is something fairly simple: Setting up a colossal Microsoft Exchange email platform so that individual government departments don’t have to manage their disparate email platforms themselves. But no, Queensland has managed to stuff even this up.

What this demonstrates, in my opinion, is two things. Firstly, as a number of noted Australian technology analysts have been saying for some time, the nation’s experiment with vast IT shared services projects has failed. These systems are best farmed out to external outsourcers; who are just much better placed to provide these kind of services.

Secondly, yes, I do believe that the Labor Government’s inability to keep any IT project on the rails — even one focused on basic infrastructure, as this one is — says somewhat about its ability to govern. I don’t know whether the LNP in Queensland could do any better, but I think it’s probably about time they were given a chance to. They certainly couldn’t do any worse when it comes to IT management.

Image credit: Theo Kleen, royalty free. Opinion/analysis by Renai LeMay

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news Queensland’s Griffith University has become the latest educational institution to shift its staff email accounts into Google’s cloud, announcing yesterday that it would ditch IBM’s troubled Lotus Notes/Domino suite as it did so.

The university had previously shifted its 120,000 staff and alumni onto Google’s Apps platform in early 2010. However, up until now, the institution’s staff had still been using Lotus Notes/Domino, hosted on-premise in its own datacentre. According to a statement issued by the university last week, however, all that is about to change. Pilot groups of staff will move to Google Apps this month (October), the statement said, and most staff will move after the University’s examination period in November. All staff will be migrated by March 2012.

Google Apps will provide opportunities for staff and students to enjoy deeper, richer collaborations and tap into “the world’s latest communication innovations, according to Griffith’s pro vice chancellor (Information Services), Linda O’Brien.

“We were drawn to the fact Google shares similar characteristics to Griffith, with both organisations being innovative, youthful, fast moving, and committed to advancing knowledge — Griffith through its research and teaching, Google through making the world’s information and knowledge accessible,” O’Brien said. “Griffith is a leading research university that cares about its students and staff, so it makes sense to create an environment that places our staff and students in the same space, facilitating collaboration and learning.

“Our academics need the ability to collaborate globally, to communicate, share, and build strong research relationships if we are to advance knowledge and solve the world’s biggest problems. Google makes this borderless collaboration easy,” she said.

Griffith will give its staff access to the complete Google Apps suite, with 25GB of email storage space being unlocked and tools like Google’s Docs office suite, calendar and Talk collaboration suite being made available.

“We are very happy to see yet another leading University in Australia adopt Google Apps,” said Stuart McLean, Google’s Head of Enterprise, Australia and New Zealand. “Education cannot be restricted to the walls of a classroom, it is when ideas can be quickly expressed, shared and developed that learning takes a whole new meaning.” Google Partner Dialog IT will aid with the migration.

A number of major Australian educational institutions have migrated both their staff and students to Google Apps over the past several years. However, Microsoft has won more business than Google in the sector over that period, with its Live@EDU and Exchange platforms proving more attractive than Google Apps for most organisations.

Image credit: Robert Scoble, Creative Commons

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