WELLITY, WELLITY, WELLITY.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics have admitted that the reason the Census website crashed last night was because it was attacked multiple times by overseas hackers.
The ABS‘s David Kalisch has said that attackers attempted four times, after which point, the site was shut down as a precaution.
“It was an attack, and we believe from overseas.The online census form was subject to four denial of service attacks yesterday.The first three caused minor disruption, but more than 2 million forms were successfully submitted and safely stored.
[…] We have steps in place to counter attacks, [but] this one, there was one breach that did actually get through via a third party … and believe that we’ve plugged that gap.”
When asked if the attack’s purpose was to sabotage the census, Kasich said, “We believe so.”
He told press that the site was taken down just after 7:30pm as a preventative measure to “ensure the integrity of the data”.
“The Australian Signals Directorate are investigating, but they did note that it was very difficult to source the attack.Steps have been taken during the night to remedy these issues and I can certainly reassure Australians that the data they provided is safe.”
Aussies got real grumpy and vocal last night when the Census website crashed and couldn’t be accessed. Mostly those of us [READ: everyone] who really, really can’t bloody afford that $180 per day fine they were threatening for not contributing.
But the ABS assured Australians that the Census can be filled out anytime before the 23rd of September, and fines will not apply before that time.
Source: ABC.
