The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recently confirmed that its servers were hacked in April 2018. According to the US office of inspection, hackers connected to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) servers and moved laterally into the NASA network. The entire incident was reported by Forbes.
NASA stated that the hackers used the simple use it yourself computers to get into 2 networks of JPL and stole around 50 megabytes of data from 23 files. There was some sensitive information regarding the International Traffic in arms regulations. It was related to the Mars science laboratory mission, which included sensitive topics like curiosity rover.
After the incident was revealed officially by NASA, Johnson Space Centre disconnected from the Jets Propulsion Laboratory networks. This was dying to ensure that the hackers don’t get into the system further. Space centers have a lot of valuable information which cannot be believed as they are a threat to national security. It was a big attack because there was a lateral movement in other servers as well and this was a great concern for both NASA and Johnson laboratories. Johnson did not connect to the JPL server until the issue was completely addressed. They were afraid of the fact that the potential data related to the space missions could be revealed in media.
NASA Hacked: Official Statement
NASA officially communicated with its employees than last year and interview against illegal access to the server which was involved in a local store in the data related to employees. The server also had information related to the former employees. It was a major setback for all the employees because their identities getting revealed in the world could be a threat to them. The sir was not only had the name and personal details of the employees but also the designation at which they were working in NASA. The social security number of the employees were also revealed during this cyber attack.
NASA confirmed that the attack was carried out on 23rd October 2018. The amount of data leaked and the number of employees affected by this security flaw could not be determined. However, the official confirmation came in that employees who were transferred between 2006 and 2018 could have been affected.
The NASA cyber security cell started investigating the possible reason for this server attack. Moreover, they were also finding out the intensity of damage that has been caused to the server and the employee’s information. They further released the information that NASA is closely working with the federal cyber security personnel in order to take immediate action. The servers were also taken down immediately in order to restrict any further infiltration. This was one of the rare incidents when NASA was hacked. Strict actions will be taken in to address this cyber attack.
