The U.S. Census Bureau is concerned the Russian government could hack into data collected in the 2020 Census, in a similar way to how it interfered in the 2016 presidential election, a top bureau official said.

“Most of the agencies of the federal government that ingest data are very concerned about interference in the process of taking the 2020 Census,’’ said John Abowd, chief scientist at the U.S. Census bureau. “We are very concerned about this and very concerned about developing appropriate defenses,” he told told a Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta conference in Amelia Island, Florida