“Rob Wiesenthal, a top deputy to Stringer [CEO of Sony] who is in charge of [Sony worldwide] strategy and M&A, says, "I have 35 Sony devices at home. I have 35 battery chargers. That's all you need to know."
I feel the same way about the Australian government and authentication services which got me wondering, how many usernames and passwords could an Australian citizen have with the government? With the advent of OpenID, Shibboleth and a consumer acceptance of SSO offerings like Facebook Connect and Messenger Connect, how many Australian government agencies are still entrenched in the local authentication mindset?
For the purposes of this exercise, I will limit the scope to
- Only federal government agencies – no state or local agencies, no wholly owned private companies
- Only services where a citizen or company can register – no internal only resources that are publically accessible (ie. no extranets), no G2B or G2G services. If there is a publically accessible registration process, it counts.
- The method of registration doesn’t have to be online – only needs to be available to a citizen or company.
- Only services which require a username and password – no e-mail subscription lists, surveys.
- No universities – I want to publish this blog post this century
- Anything that meets the criteria above counts: doesn’t matter if it’s the ATO web portal or a single Jira instance used by two people.
I started by listing the online services I was aware of. Then I used the Google query "forgotten password" site:gov.au -site:vic.gov.au -site:nsw.gov.au -site:wa.gov.au -site:sa.gov.au -site:act.gov.au -site:qld.gov.au –site:tas.gov.au –site:nt.gov.au
| Site | Login | Register | Forgotten password? |
| Australia.gov.au | |||
| AusKey | |||
| Medicare Australia | |||
| Medicare Australia – Health Professional Online Services |
forgotten password?
| ||
| Centrelink | |||
| Australian JobSearch | |||
Child Support Agency
| |||
| Australian Securities and Investments Commission |
None, call service desk
| ||
| National Health and Medical Research Council – Research Grants Management System |
Login
| ||
| National Archives of Australia RecordSearch |
None – send e-mail to a reference officer
| ||
| Australian Research Council – Research Management System | |||
| Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations – Endeavour Awards | |||
| Department of Finance and Deregulation – Govdex | |||
| Employment & Community Services Network |
None, contact helpdesk
| ||
| Resource training generator | |||
| Prime Minister’s Department – E-mail subscriptions | |||
| Department of Veteran’s Affairs – Secure Services |
None
|
None
| |
| Federal Register of Legislative Instruments – Lodgement Portal |
None
| ||
| National Library of Australia |
None, call help desk
| ||
| Medicare Small Business Superannuation Clearing House | |||
| Senate – Senate Committee Submissions | |||
| Parliament of Australia – ParlInfo Search | |||
| Australian Public Service Commission – APS Jobs | |||
| Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities – Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme | |||
| Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities – Water Efficiency Labelling and Standards Scheme | |||
| Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities – Australian National Shipwreck Database |
Register
| ||
| AusTender | |||
| Federal Court of Australia – eLodgment | |||
| National Transport Commission – Online Portal | |||
| Australian Education International – AEI Online | |||
| AusTrade | |||
| Australian Bureau of Statistics – TableBuilder |
Register – need to fax a form
| ||
| Australian Bureau of Statistics – CensusAtSchool | |||
| Fair Work Australia – eFiling | |||
| Australian Bureaeu of Statistics – MiCRO | |||
| Insolvency and Trustee Service Australia – Online Services |
forgotten password?
| ||
| Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research – The Prime Minister’s Prize for Science | |||
| Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research – International Science Linkages | |||
| Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations – School Services Point | |||
| Tax Practitioners Board | |||
| Australian Customs and Border Protection Services – Careers and Recruitment |
Register – you get an account during the application process
| ||
| Australian Council for the Arts – Online Services | |||
| Australian Government - eSub Online |
forgotten password?
| ||
| Australia War Memorial | |||
| Aged Care Australia – my page | |||
| Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations | |||
| Department of Defence – Defence Science and Technology Organisation – DSTO Publications Online | |||
| National Ethics Application Form | |||
| National Measurement Institute | |||
| Australian Customs and Border Protection Service – Subscriptions | |||
| Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research | |||
| Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation – Publications Online | |||
| My Plan Indigenous Opportunities Policy | |||
| Council for the Australian Federation – Online Services | |||
| Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research | |||
| Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs – FLoSse Research | |||
| Ageing Research Online | |||
| Austrade - Marine | |||
| Australian Electoral Commission – eReturns | |||
| Australian National Maritime Museum – Australian Register of Historic Vessels Forums | |||
| MyFuture | |||
| Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House | |||
| Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research – Australia-India Strategic Research Fund | |||
| Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency – Online System for Comprehensive Activity Reporting | |||
| National Library of Australia – Trove | |||
| AusIndustry | |||
| National Film and Sound Archive | |||
| Department of Immigration and Citizenship – Newsroom | |||
| Australian Fisheries Management Authority – Quotaboard | |||
| Australian Pictorial Thesaurus |
forgotten password? – None, contact APT Coordinator
| ||
| Civil Aviation Safety Authority – DAMP Reporting |
forgotten password? – None, contact AOD team
| ||
| Civil Aviation Safety Authority | |||
| Australian Institute of Health and Welfare – METeOR | |||
| Australian Prudential Regulation Authority – National Claims and Policies Database | |||
| National Health and Medical Research Council – Emergency Care Information Gateway | |||
| Australian Broadcasting Corporation – Communities | |||
| Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research – DIISR Authentication Gateway | |||
| Defence Housing Authority – Online Services |
Register – or call DHA
| ||
| Department of Health and Ageing – NICNAS |
forgotten password?
| ||
| National Archives of Australia – Vrroom | |||
| Business.gov.au – Business Consultation | |||
| Lending Rights | |||
| Energy Rating – Online Services | |||
| Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency – Online Services |
Register – through online form
| ||
| Development Assessment Forum – eDA | |||
| Office of the Renewable Energy Regulator – REC Registry | |||
| Market Based Instruments | |||
| Australian Sports Commission – Athlete Training System | |||
| Australian Communications and Media Authority – Events |
Register – registration upon ticket purchase
| ||
| Australian Sports Commission – ACEonline |
forgotten password? – none, webform to administrator
| ||
| Sugar Research and Development Corporation | |||
| Disability Policy & Research Working Group |
Register - YOU CAN LOGIN WITH OPENID!!!
| ||
| Living Greener |
Register – YOU CAN LOGIN WITH OPENID!!!
| ||
| Director of National Parks | |||
| National Museum of Australia | |||
| Department of the Environment and Water Resources | |||
| National Film & Sound Archive |
forgotten password?
| ||
| Australian Communications and Media Authority – Number Planning Inquiry Registration |
forgotten password?
| ||
| Australian Law Reform Commission |
Register – YOU CAN LOGIN WITH OPENID!!!
| ||
| Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations – myUniAssist |
I decided to quit after 100. The answer? Probably a few hundred. What does this mean? On the upside, it’s nice to see that the federal government has a lot of online services. On the downside, it’s disappointing that they don’t have an SSO strategy, and doubly disappointing that the government doesn’t think that federated login is necessary (I’m guessing that statement was made to set the success level for australia.gov.au very low.)
In the meantime, I’m going to login to my Foursquare account with my Facebook credentials, and signin to my TripIt account with my Google credentials.
