AS president (and only member) of the Technomorons Association of Australia, your ancient scribe admits he knows nothing about the following issue.

But there are some questions that need to be answered.

That shutdown of the Census computer system the other night: how far can these computer hackers go?

It is a serious question, because you and I spend lots of money on our defence, but if hackers, particularly those in foreign countries who have reason to dislike Australia, really wanted to, how much damage could they cause?

Maybe those billion dollar-plus submarines we are buying in the next few decades will have some magic system of communication with the naval bosses in Australia and maybe our defence computer system is of the latest, secure model, but in recent years hackers have been able to make their way into the computer system at the USA’s Pentagon and there are regular attempts to hack into other top-security networks.

The hackers must realise they don’t need to get into the military’s secrets to win a war; there are other essentials to ‘defence’ as well.

Would it be possible, for example, for a hacker to shut down our electricity networks, thus affecting everything from our refrigerators to the lifts in big buildings and traffic lights that would make it difficult for defence workers to get to work?

Or maybe someone could overload and knock out our telecommunications network. That would be serious because it would probably close down the system we use to tell defence workers they are needed at work.

It would also send lots of people crazy. You know, the ones who seem to spend all their spare time sending messages and doing strange things with their mobile telephones.

Your scribe certainly doesn’t know the answers, but I do know that there are specially trained and skilled computer operators working for some foreign governments who would know the answers and if someone was able to make a mess of our regular Census collection, surely they would be aware of how to do much more serious damage if they wanted to or if their governments asked them.

There seem to be lots of ways we are at risk if there are hackers out there who are smarter than the people who ran our electronic Census.

And if they know how to do this sort of damage, maybe we need an entirely new look at our defence systems and that might mean we need more humans controlling the on/off switches, rather than some flash computer that can be controlled by someone in some foreign country.

Anyhow, as a technomoron, these are things well beyond your scribe’s knowledge, but it would be comforting to be told that our ‘experts’ have it all in hand.

It is just sad that they weren’t in charge of electronic security on Census night.

DEMOCRACY FOR DUMMIES

It is becoming clear that our politicians need a revision course about how democracy is supposed to work.

Both sides of parliament have big problems with factional in-fighting. It has happened in the Labor Party for decades, but now the Liberals have a big split down the middle with the ultra-conservative faction at loggerheads with the more moderate conservatives.

What they have forgotten is that they represent the people who elected them, not the manipulators in their head office. The pressures on policies should come from grassroots membership, not head office or factions.

And history has shown the voters don’t want far right or far left policies, they want more moderate government. Very simply, democracy is supposed to be a from the bottom up system.

We really need more ‘parliamentarians’ and fewer ‘politicians’ in power; and maybe a bulk supply of ‘Democracy for Dummies’.