Security flaws close new road's toll system

[Mr Merde]

From todays herald online

"Internet security flaws have forced a closedown of website toll payment facilities for the Northern Gateway motorway between Orewa and Puhoi, less than three weeks before its opening date.
After shutting the payment section of the $365 million toll road's website yesterday, the NZ Transport Agency admitted it had done so because of flaws pointed out to the Herald by computer experts......."


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10550744

Problems already.

[Slyer]

Madness.
Oh whoops we forgot to add security...
:stupid:

[Tank]

Bit of a stuff up not having a security cert - how the fuck did that get past QA?

Regardless - silly reporting "they dont know if it can be back online by the 25th" - You can tell its government IT.

Sad to see 900 people entered their details without checking to see if it was secure. dipshits.

[Skunk]

Did they have amateurs coding the site or something?

[Kiwi Graham]

Who'd of thought, the internet not being secure.
I guess we all get to travel free then eh!

[The Pastor]

Doesnt say if anyone actually hacked the site or not, hopefully no one did.

[discotex]

Doesnt say if anyone actually hacked the site or not, hopefully no one did.

Whether or not it has an SSL cert has nothing to do with how hackable it is.

All SSL does is encrypt the communication between your PC and the server so other people can't see your credit card being sent across the internet. Unless they're looking for it and have the right access to that "corner" of the internet it's not major. Kinda like sending a letter with cash in it. Anyone could open it but 99.99% of the time no-one would bother.

It's no biggie really but shows someone's total lack of understanding of ecommerce. PCI compliance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_DSS) checks should have picked that up.

[Slyer]

With the way they media use it, hacker has become a very generic term for internet criminal.

[TOTO]

Herald is blooady making a story out of something that could have been fitted into four sentences.

trying to kill a fly with an elephant gun. They are idiots sometimes.

[ManDownUnder]

Did they have amateurs coding the site or something?

Don't think of them as inexperienced - think of them as working to a well defined budget.... peanuts... monkeys?

[ManDownUnder]

FFS it's a PR boon just itching to happen.

Something along the lines of
"We dropped the ball so we're doing opening the road free of charge to all traffic on the agreed date. No billing will be done for those that have already paid, and large signs will be erected giving motorists plenty of warning when the tolling system is expected to come back online.

We encourage the motoring public to make the most of this situation and use the facility free of charge until we can correct our oversight."

Problem? My arse!

[NodMan]

Its going to be free for bikes anyway so why would their computer glitches affect KBers?

Im starting to think that the old winding road thru Waiwera might just drag me off SH16 once all the cagers go play in the tunnel, have to wait and see how many cagers go pay their $2 I guess

[Mr Merde]

Its going to be free for bikes anyway so why would their computer glitches affect KBers?

.......

There are very few bike riders in this country who solely ride bikes, in my experience. Therefore it follows that quite a number of them drive cars. Therefore this information is pertinant to them, if for some reason they find them selves travelling north of Auckland.

Its only recently that they have decided that bikes were not going to be charged. Until then we were on the same rate as a cage. This could still happen, companies, government departments and local bodies are notorious for changing their collective minds over things.

This is not a put down but instead a valid response to your question.

[Slyer]

This is not a put down but instead a valid response to your question.
People not realising this is what's wrong with this website. ;)

[Gubb]

After shutting the payment section of the $365 million toll road's website

The website costs $365 million?!?

[Howsie]

The website costs $365 million?!?

You need to reread that. Shutting the payment section of the $365million toll road website.

ie the website of the $365million toll road :Punk:

[Slyer]

I think that was the (bad) joke.

[Gubb]

I think that was the (bad) joke.

Ba-doom-tischh.

[roy.nz]

Wouldn't expect anything less, takes them years to finish someting and still fuck it up, come on......

[nigel]

Software development (websites are just software after all) is a minefield of inexperienced idiots. There's a reason why the best charge hundreds of dollars an hour.. maybe the government will realise this soon.

No SSL cert, what a joke. Doesn't give you much confidence that the site couldn't be hacked through standard attacks.

I for one welcome big stories being made out of such things. They help get the public educated about what to look for when doing transactions on the interwebs...