John Crudele

John Crudele

Business

New technology for 2020 Census risks hackers: experts

The 2020 census is already going to be a circus — too much to do in too little time. And it will also cost too much money. So the folks who run the census are thinking of using computers more and footwork less.

Naturally, there are worries about evildoers trying to interfere by hacking the computers that all the census data will be fed into.

A group of cybersecurity experts recently wrote to the acting head of the Census Bureau and to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross expressing their concerns.

“Despite repeated requests from Congress and from the public for a better understanding of the Census Bureau’s preparation for the first electronic census, the bureau has not provided basic information,” said the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at the Georgetown University Law Center.

The institution, for one thing, wants to know what kind of encryption will be used to protect the data.

Well, maybe the Census Bureau isn’t telling because it doesn’t know.

The Constitution mandates a census be conducted every 10 years.

Maybe this is one part of the Constitution that needs to be changed, especially since there are many more ways to get a head count of Americans in this computer age than there were during George Washington’s horse and buggy times.

If the Russians do hack our 2020 census data, Moscow could be the one determining whether or not your community gets a government-funded pool.