Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The Ministry of Planning issued a stern official statement on Tuesday, debunking viral social media claims that national census data had been leaked or offered for sale on the “Dark Web.” The Ministry assured the public that Iraq’s demographic data remains under high-level cyber protection and is physically impossible to breach via the internet. To counter the rumors, the Ministry detailed the rigorous security protocols used during the recent 2026 General Population Census: Offline network: The census data is managed within a closed local network that is not connected to the global internet, effectively air-gapping the information from external hackers.

Tablet sanitization: All tablets (handheld devices) used by field workers underwent a multi-stage formatting process. Specialized technical teams removed memory units, wiped the data several times, and restored the devices to factory settings. Dat irretrievability: Technical experts confirmed that it is impossible to recover any personal information from the hardware once it has been returned to the central ministry storage.