Still time to fill in census

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has blamed overseas hackers for the crash and stresses there is still plenty of time to fill in your census and people will not be fined.

“Australia we apologise for the inconvenience. The 2016 online Census form was subject to four Denial of Service attacks yesterday of varying nature and severity.

The first three caused minor disruption but more than 2million Census forms were successfully submitted and safely stored.

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.

Steps have been taken during the night to remedy these issues, and we can reassure Australians that their data are secure at the ABS,” says a statement on the Census Facebook page.

The statement continues:

“ABS would remind Australians that they have plenty of time to complete the Census, to well into September, and again note that fines will not be imposed for completing the Census after Census night.”

Chief Statistician David Kalisch told ABC radio the four attacks were a deliberate attempt to sabotage the site.

“The scale of the attack, it was quite clear it was malicious,” he said.

“It was an attack, and we believe from overseas.

“Steps have been taken during the night to remedy these issues and I can certainly reassure Australians that the data they provided is safe.”