As Australians prepare for Census night on August 10, experts have warned that Cyberattackers around the world are preparing to cause a repeat of the 2016 debacle.

Professor Matthew Warren, Director of the RMIT University Centre for Cyber Security Research, said “Australia’s first online Census in 2016 was a disaster. The Census website was hit with a number of distributed denial of service attacks on day one followed by a hardware failure, the website being taken offline for 40 hours and global headlines.

“A lot changes online in five years. Australia is facing new geo-political issues and new cyber challenges and this is the environment for the upcoming Census.”

Warren believes Cyber attackers will look at weaknesses in the online Census system, with co-ordinated distributed denial of service attacks or cyber attacks being the prize.

"Cyber attackers target big projects and initiatives like the Census to embarrass the Australian Government, implying it can’t manage key high-profile systems. 

“The Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Australian Government knows what is coming and would have built security and resilience into the Census system to protect against potential attacks.

“The stakes are high and only time will tell what happens on Census night and if the 2021 Census will become another global headline.”

Pressure on ABS servers will be somewhat lessened by the ability for households to complete the Census as soon as they receive their instructions - if they know where they’ll be on 10 August (which COVID lockdowns make quite easy). You don’t have to wait until Census night.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) estimated it has received 1,023,561 Census forms as of Wednesday 4 August at 8am.

For 2021, the ABS says it has completely rebuilt the Census Digital Service incorporating a range of security elements.

The Australian National Audit Office conducted an inquiry into ABS Planning for the 2021 Census, with a report published in November 2020.

The report concluded the ABS has only been “partly effective in addressing key Census risks, implementing past Census recommendations and ensuring timely delivery of the 2021 Census.”

The ANAO made seven recommendations to remove risk in Census 2021 preparations, all of which the ABS agreed to implement ahead of August 10.