Implementing safeguards for the population count
In March 2021, the United Kingdom conducted its first national census in a decade, marking a significant milestone in data collection. The contract for operating the census was awarded to Lockheed Martin, a US company known for developing military technology. However, the web infrastructure for the census had a tiered architecture, isolating public-facing services from the back-end services, ensuring a secure and seamless experience for the millions of participants.
Lockheed Martin developed the back-end for the online census questionnaire, while the front-end was built by Web Technology Group. Security was a primary concern for Lockheed Martin due to potential damage from a breach in census data, as they also operate censuses in the US and Canada. To address this, the IT infrastructure was independently tested to ensure no remote access, especially for Lockheed Martin.
The web census was designed to withstand up to 170,000 concurrent users. Despite this, lower-than-expected online questionnaire take-up led to a renegotiation of the project cost. Paper questionnaires were collected at a specially leased facility in Manchester, where they were scanned by specialist subcontractor UK Data Capture Ltd. Each questionnaire had 32 pages, and all pages were scanned and read.
Access to the paper forms and the Manchester facility was highly controlled, with security zones and identity card access points. All 1,300 staff working on the site had to get security clearance to the UK government's SC (security check) standard. Steria staff were seconded under ONS management control, preventing Lockheed Martin from directly instructing them.
Once the infrastructure and processes were in place, Lockheed Martin could not handle any of the collected data themselves. The data collected from the website and paper questionnaires was compiled in an Oracle database, replicated across two sites for business continuity. Data was periodically sent to ONS over a secure network connection, while scanned images of the questionnaires were sent via secure media delivery for cross-checking and archiving.
Lockheed Martin staff left the Manchester facility when the census began, with 24-hour remote support provided during the operation. After data delivery and cross-checking, the IT equipment was wiped using CESG-approved products, and any equipment that didn't support these products was physically destroyed. Approximately 28 million households completed the questionnaire, with 4 million via the Internet.
While the main sponsor for the security measures during the 2021 Census in the UK was not explicitly identified in the provided search results, it is clear that a robust and secure system was put in place to ensure the success of the census. Despite the challenges faced, the census ran without major incident, demonstrating the effectiveness of the measures put in place.
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