The Census and Australian Bureau of Statistics websites were shut down overnight after a cyber attack last night.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, foreign hackers conducted four attacks throughout the night causing the site to crash. The site was unable to be fixed overnight, however the ABS has assured the two million Australians who managed to complete the Census before the site crashed that their data was “secure at the ABS”.
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The ABS has ensured Australians they have plenty of time to complete the Census after last night’s crash, and there would be no imposed fine for completing the Census after the Census night.
After the fourth attack that occurred just after 7:30 pm, ABS has shut down the website on purposed to protect people’s data.
“That’s probably when many people had finished their dinner and were sitting down to use the online Census form, where we had a fourth attack and we took the precaution of closing down the system” said Mr Kalisch, ABS Chief statistician.
He further shared that all that was known about the attack was that it came from an international source.
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