"Foreign Hackers" Launch DDoS Attacks on Australia's Census Website
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said that foreign hackers had 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 that 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.
