{"id":257336,"date":"2026-05-27T23:48:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T03:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/27\/cybersecurity-issues-facing-australias-2026-census-information-age\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T00:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T04:00:11","slug":"cybersecurity-issues-facing-australias-2026-census-information-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/27\/cybersecurity-issues-facing-australias-2026-census-information-age\/","title":{"rendered":"Cybersecurity issues facing Australia’s 2026 Census | Information Age"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cybersecurity issues facing Australia’s 2026 Census | Information Age<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/ia.acs.org.au\/article\/2026\/cybersecurity-issues-facing-australia-s-2026-census.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-05-27 23:48:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: ia.acs.org.au<\/a><\/p>\n

Australia’s 2026 Census is expected to face cybersecurity threats as more people complete the form online. Image: Shutterstock<\/p>\n

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) must strengthen its cybersecurity preparedness ahead of the 2026 Census in August, an audit of the government agency\u2019s ICT environment has found.<\/p>\n

The review of ABS cybersecurity, published on Wednesday by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO), found vulnerabilities remained ahead of the Census \u2013 which is expected to see around 85 per cent of Australian residents share their household and demographic details online on Tuesday, 11 August.<\/p>\n

Delays in identifying cybersecurity vulnerabilities had been caused by \u201cinsufficient consideration to holistic planning\u201d by ABS, the audit found.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the ABS responded quickly and continued to address these vulnerabilities during the audit, this response has required deployment of significant cybersecurity experts for an extended period beyond that originally anticipated,\u201d the ANAO said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be ready for the 2026 Census, the ABS must address key remaining cybersecurity vulnerabilities by ensuring critical activities will be completed in time.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the audit found ABS is monitoring cybersecurity risks and testing its systems using threat modelling, it suggested the agency had left \u201cshortcomings\u201d in the completeness and timeliness of its risk reviews.<\/p>\n

ABS agrees to audit recommendations<\/h4>\n

ANAO shared four recommendations with ABS, including improving its risk management, reviewing its security documentation, and \u201caddressing risks stemming from the broader ABS ICT environment\u201d.<\/p>\n

ABS said it agreed to all four recommendations and told ANAO \u201call will be implemented before the 2026 Census\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a statement, ABS said two of the recommendations had already been implemented in full.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a range of processes and protections that make sure information in Census forms stays confidential,\u201d the agency said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cybersecurity issues facing Australia’s 2026 Census | Information Age https:\/\/ia.acs.org.au\/article\/2026\/cybersecurity-issues-facing-australia-s-2026-census.html Publish Date: 2026-05-27 23:48:00 Source…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":257339,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ia.acs.org.au\/content\/dam\/ia\/article\/images\/2026\/australian%20flag%20binary%20code%20shutterstock.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[57],"class_list":["post-257336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity","tag-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257336"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":257341,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257336\/revisions\/257341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}