The U.S. Census Bureau did not have fundamental security safeguards in place to protect its IT systems supporting the 2020 census, concluded a report by the Department of Commerce's Office of Inspector General (OIG). The office warned that IT security weaknesses could be exploited to manipulate data and steal personal information.

More from the report:

• The OIG concluded that the bureau had an inadequate risk management program, poorly managed its Active Directory by allowing excessive access rights, and failed to enforce personal identity verification. 
• The Census Bureau responded that it fixed the IT security problems and that no data was lost or compromised.
• The census is used to determine the number of seats each state has in the U.S. House, define congressional districts, and distribute billions of dollars in federal funds for infrastructure and public services.