The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) says that foreign hackers launched cyber-attacks on the ABS Census website yesterday in an attempt to sabotage its "Census Night." Apparently, their attacks were successful because the ABS willingly shut down its website to prevent further damage.
The ABS Census Night, or the Census of Population and Housing, is a mandatory event that takes place every five years in Australia. Every Australian must fill in and submit a form detailing who lives in their house and a description of their home and properties.
The most recent Census Night was scheduled for yesterday, August 9, 2016, and the ABS set up a website for Australians who wanted to fill in the census forms online.
According to several reports from Australian news media, the ABS Census website was hit by four major DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks.
ABS said the first three caused minor disruptions, but the fourth was massive enough to prevent Australians from accessing the site.
ABS shut down its own website to prevent further damage
In statements given to the press on the next morning and also published on Twitter (see below), ABS said they shut down the ABS Census website on their own to prevent the attackers from compromising the servers and accessing any sensitive data.
From official ABS statements, it is unclear if the last incident was more than a DDoS attack, and if the attackers tried to breach its servers.
ABS said that over two million people managed to submit their census forms before the website was shut down. At the time of writing, the ABS Census website is still down, but the ABS claims it expects to have it up and running today, around 09:00 AM
ABS officials have also announced that the people who couldn't file their census papers will not receive a fine.
We apologise for the inconvenience. The 2016 online Census form was subject to four Denial of Service attacks of varying nature & severity. — Census Australia (@ABSCensus) August 9, 2016
The first three caused minor disruption but more than 2 million Census forms were successfully submitted and safely stored. — Census Australia (@ABSCensus) August 9, 2016
After the fourth attack, just after 7:30pm, the ABS took the precaution of closing down the system to ensure the integrity of the data. — Census Australia (@ABSCensus) August 9, 2016
Steps have been taken during the night to remedy these issues, and we can reassure Australians that their data are secure at the ABS. — Census Australia (@ABSCensus) August 9, 2016
ABS would remind Australians that they have plenty of time to complete the Census, to well into September. — Census Australia (@ABSCensus) August 9, 2016
Fines will not be imposed for completing the Census after Census night. — Census Australia (@ABSCensus) August 9, 2016
We expect to update you again at 9am on the timing of the resumption of availability of the Census online form. — Census Australia (@ABSCensus) August 9, 2016