A completely digital United States census is going to happen in 2020.
With personally identifiable information (PII) on hundreds of millions of Americans, the digital census data could be a gold mine for hackers.
Now a new General Accounting Office audit reports more than 3,000 security vulnerabilities with the Census Bureau's systems.
And it also notes that the Census Bureau is in some ways being forced to minimize cybersecurity because of tight schedules.
Nextgov reports:
The Census Bureau initially planned for six to eight weeks of security testing for most systems. Because of delays, that period has been compressed, in some cases, to just five to eight days. In other cases, systems have been deployed before they were fully tested, the report stated.
Out of 44 IT systems the Commerce Department will use to conduct the 2020 Census, 38 will contain citizens’ personal information, according to the report.