[LINK] (no subject)

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

Hmmm, 1500 cards and they can't get it working. Just think of the problems if they had 16million.
I wonder if Thales have bid for the Access Card project?

ANd I really liked this piece of journalism:

"They then visualised me out of the building."

APEC pass farce: it's no go
Edmund Tadros
August 28, 2007 - 2:20PM
SMH
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/apec-pass-farce-its-no-go/2007/08/28/1188067091460.html

The security accreditation cards for the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum have stopped working, hours after the APEC Taskforce began issuing them.

APEC staff at the Sydney Exhibition and Convention Centre were forced to abandon a card-swipe computer and confirm the identity of individuals visually.

The computers stopped working about 11.30am with a staff member saying it would be down for "about two hours".

But an APEC Taskforce spokeswoman said the system was down for less than an hour.

"We haven't compromised our security by going through a visual id check," she said.

"The computer system was out for less than an hour, so we were on visual id check for less than an hour."

The 1500 journalists expected into Sydney for the summit have all had to register and receive a security identification card.

Many people who work and live the APEC security areas have also had to register and undergo a security check for the summit.

Fairfax staff member Michael Johnson said he was waiting to exit the building when the system stopped working.

"There is an exit where you are meant to scan your brand new pass and to walk out," he said.

"You are meant to place your pass on the reader and ideally the person behind the counter can see your pass and it comes up as acceptable on a computer.

"But just as I was walking out it worked a couple of times and then it stopped working."

Fearing the problem was with his card, Mr Johnson had his card reissued at the centre.

But by that stage staff had confirmed the problem with the computer system.

"An official came over and said to the staff 'We're on visual now'," Mr Johnson said.

"I said 'Would this be a problem for long?' and he said: 'It'll be down for the next two hours and after that it'll work.'

"They then visualised me out of the building."

Mr Johnson said an APEC staff member said the database, run by the defence company Thales Australia, was not uploading correctly to the APEC computers.

The Herald has been told that there had been numerous problem with the APEC registration website run by Thales with many pages not correctly capturing the data.

Thales Australia referred questions to the APEC Taskforce.

Comment is being sought from the APEC Taskforce.


-- 
Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Sydney Australia
brd at iimetro.com.au