Answers to Questions

South Australian Integrated Land Information Service

In reply to the Hon. F. PANGALLO (20 September 2018).

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer): The Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government has provided the following advice:

In June 2018, Land Services SA (LSSA) advised the Office of the Registrar-General (ORG) that an unusually high amount of requests had been made using the free historical search facility on the SAI LIS system. Tracing on the IP addresses indicated that computers located in India were being used to undertake the search routine. LSSA originally blocked IP addresses, but later on the same week the decision was taken by LSSA and ORG to shut down the ability for guest accounts to access the free historical search capability.

Over the following week over a million attempts were made to access the historical search but these attempts were blocked by the action already taken.

LSSA then implemented a CAPTCHA feature on this facility in order to prevent similar attacks and to allow the guest accounts to again be made available. This measure was immediately successful in reducing the number of searches being undertaken to pre-existing levels of activity.

Continued availability of free historical searches was guaranteed by the former government as part of the Lands Titles Office commercialisation process.

On 4 September 2018, LSSA contacted ORG to advise that an unusual amount of requests had again been made using the historical searches, many of them successful despite the implementation of the CAPTCHA. The search technique being used had been adapted to overcome the CAPTCHA, but only on a partial basis. Tracing of IP addresses being used indicated that the computer servers were located in Australia and the United States of America.

Access to the guest search facility was again removed on 5 September 2018 and the bulletin referred to by the honourable member was issued by the Registrar-General and the CEO of LSSA to all clients.

Historical searches contain a significant amount of information but this is consistent with the lands titles register being an open register pursuant to section 65 of the Real Property Act 1886:

Subject to this section, any person may have access to the register book, and to all instruments lodged or deposited in the Lands Titles Registration Office, for the purpose of inspection during the hours, and on the days, appointed for search.

These searches have been available in the same way through guest user accounts for many years.

I am advised that guest account access was nevertheless removed 'out of an abundance of caution' as the Registrar-General and the CEO of LSSA were of the view that although the access was not illegal, the access was outside of the circumstances that the product should genuinely be available for.

I am further advised however that there has been no access to personal financial data as this information is not available through an historical information search.

Section 65 of the Real Property Act requires that the register book is publicly available, and in this case I am advised there has been no access to personal information that is not legitimately available through either a free search or through one of the paid search products that are available to the general public via LSSA.

The Registrar-General is in ongoing discussion with LSSA and security experts in relation to this issue.