ISS codes stolen from NASA in 2010

Hacking attacks and data security issues aren’t limited to just large commercial organizations, it also targets agencies such as NASA, we have learned. According to a news by PCMag, NASA has been under attack by hackers as well and back in 2010, security codes for the International Space Station (ISS) were stolen. This data was stored in an unencrypted manner on a laptop, NASA’s space agency inspector general, Paul Martin told the U.S Congress. These security codes were ones that could be used to control the space station. Apparently, NASA has seen more than 5,400 hacking attempts in the past two years. These attempts have meant that many systems have had malicious codes put into them or access to unauthorized areas have been gained.

Security concerns…

Another laptop that was stolen contained data on Orion, a spacecraft designed for space missions. The security flaws in the system resulted in losses amounting to some $7 million. The attacks are said to be done by amateurs, but it’s believed that some might be funded. One of the attacks that took place against NASA was tracked back to Chinese addresses. This particular incident wasn’t noticed for a while, but it appears hackers had control of systems over at the NASA JTL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory). The hardware over at JTL is used to control crafts headed towards other planets. 

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NASA is allotted a ton of money for IT requirements. Some $1.5 billion is assigned out of which $58 million is spent on security. Federal agencies in the U.S are said to to secure some 54 percent of all notebooks in the agencies by encrypting data. NASA on the other hand is said to only encrypt 1 percent of all notebooks. Recent audits have shown that most of the hardware used is also lacking in software update. Some 24 percent of all their systems are said to have the critical updates in place, while the rest may be vulnerable to security attacks.