ABS seeking supplier for online 2021 Census

The ABS is searching for a new supplier to provide digital services for the 2021 Census, and it will be attempting to avoid a repeat of the major outages experienced during 2016.

The bureau is seeking experienced suppliers to provide the digital service for the Census. The agency has expressed a strong preference for the service to be hosted in a cloud environment, in line with the government’s cloud-first policy.

Any cloud services will need to be accredited through an Information Security Registered Assessor’s Program (IRAP) assessment, and any services that handle sensitive data will need to operate within Australia.

ABS said a similar cloud service was successfully used for the marriage equality postal survey last year.

Interested suppliers will have until next month to submit a tender, and the supplier will be announced around the middle of next year.

ABS General Manager for Census and Statistical Services Chris Libreri said the agency will work closely with applicants to confirm proposed solutions will be able to deliver the high security, reliability and capacity standards required.

“The need to keep all Census information secure and confidential is, as always, a primary and paramount factor in designing the digital Census. The ABS is actively managing risks (including cyber) for the 2021 Census and is engaging independent experts to provide assurance on the solution, including the Digital Transformation Agency and the Australian Cyber Security Centre,” he said.

“The aim is to design an online service that is simple and safe to use for all Australians. People who want or need paper forms will also have easy access to them.”

Pressure will be on the ABS to ensure that the online Census system operates without a hitch, following the decision to pull the entire site offline during the Census in 2016 as an indirect result of an error made by provider IBM.

The investigation into the incident found that a misconfigured router provider by IBM had generated error messages in the wake of a relatively minor DDoS attack that had led ABS staff to believe the Census was being compromised by attackers, prompting the decision to pull the site offline.

But Libreri said that barring this outage period, Australians who had used the online census form in 2016 had found it quick and easy to use. The online system reduced the time taken by households to complete the Census by 70% compared to paper methods, and data remained secure at all time, he said.

Image credit: ©iStockphoto.com/Mauro Saivezzo

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