Cash was king during Optus outage. Does anyone want a cashless society as Labor/Liberal/Greens are planning?
The massive outage of 10 million Optus phone accounts and data network this week was almost certainly the result of hacking according to Cairns News IT experts and a huge wake up call for federal Labor which intends to have National ID legislation in place early next year.
The Reserve Bank has been preparing plans for conversion to a cashless society for at least two years which overnight, if enacted, would see businesses go broke and people starving in light of the Optus disaster.
If one of the world’s largest phone companies is unable to protect its network from hacking then federal Labor is dreaming it can protect the sensitive information of 25 million Australians which will be stored in a government computer.
Nearly every private corporation and many government computers in Australia have already been hacked by either China or Russia and anything run by government would be an easy target for the world’s best hackers, particularly now that AI is freely available and is being integrated into mainstream IT.
The Labor Minister for everything, Katy Gallagher, who has been dodging persistent questioning from Senator Malcolm Roberts over 30,000 excess deaths thought to be from experimental Covid vaxxes, insists the new ID system will be safe and secure. She is noted for keeping fairies at the bottom of her garden.
This personal data will be accessible by private corporations who subscribe to the system, potentially exposing personal data to just about every scam operating across the planet.
“The accreditation scheme and the AGDIS (Australian Government Digital ID System) will deliver a range of benefits to consumers and business users, service providers, government, and the broader economy,” Minister Gallagher implored.
“For Australians, this means a safe, secure, convenient and reusable way to prove who they are online, and having access to more services and businesses from the comfort of their home at a time that suits them.
“This legislation will ensure that providers of Digital IDs will be governed by legislation and designed with privacy in mind so Australians can trust their information is safe and secure.
“For business, the legislation means a simpler way to verify their customers. They get access to a market of accredited Digital ID providers, giving them and their customers peace of mind.”
More laughable is Gallagher’s claim that the clinically incompetent, underfunded ACCC will administer the ID data.
“Legislation will also establish independent regulation of Digital ID. The ACCC will be appointed as the initial Digital ID regulator, given its strong compliance record as Australia’s competition and consumer regulator,” she claimed.
Optus nightmare
One X commentator warned: ‘With Optus going down this morning and the stupid wanting a cashless society…..think about that, no phone, zero purchases’.
Businesses across the country were forced to offer cash sales only in their stores as most EFTPOS machines were down.
Other carriers that use the Optus mobile network like Amaysim, Vaya, Aussie Broadband, Moose Mobile, Coles Mobile, Spintel, Southern Phone and Dodo Mobile are also down.
The telco said it was aware of issues affecting some customers but is yet to explain the system failure.
‘Optus is aware of an issue that may be impacting some of our mobile and internet customers,’ a spokesman said.
‘We are currently working to identify the cause and apologise for any inconvenience.
‘In case of an emergency, customers can still call 000.’
Federal Labor Communications Minister Michele Rowland told Optus on Wednesday they should immediately “communicate with their customers.”
Well OK this is Australia and we have to make allowances for the intellectual pygmies of Labor, Greens and some Liberals.
