Lawmakers grilled top Census Bureau officials on Wednesday about the cybersecurity of the 2020 census, which kicks off nationwide next month and marks the first time that Americans will be able to fill out the form online.
Officials are facing new urgency over the issue after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report earlier Wednesday highlighting cybersecurity concerns and following the breakdown of the app used by the Iowa Democratic Party to count votes in the state’s caucuses last week.
Those issues were front and center during a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on Wednesday that featured testimony from Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham and GAO officials.
According to the GAO report, the bureau faces “significant cybersecurity challenges in securing its systems and data.” The report said the Census Bureau, one month before the online launch, still has to fix identified cyber vulnerabilities, implement Department of Homeland Security recommendations and ensure that collected information is safe from data breaches.
Nick Marinos, the director of IT and cybersecurity at GAO, told lawmakers the bureau still has work to do before the…
