NASA Vulnerable To Crippling Cyber Attacks 67
RedEaredSlider writes "The computer network NASA relies upon to carry out its billion dollar missions is just like your Mac or PC at home; vulnerable to cyber attacks. NASA's servers contain vulnerabilities that could enable a cyberattack to cripple the entire agency, according to a recent audit report from The Office of the Inspector General. The report was an unflattering look at NASA's internal computer security operations, as the Inspector General recommended the agency expedite the implementation of a new agency-wide program to oversee the network security problem."
Re:What would that look like exactly? (Score:4, Informative)
To the best of my knowledge NASA is kind of a management consultant group... They contract EVERYTHING out.
No, you're confusing us with DoD. DoD contracts everything out, but NASA has a mix of contract and in-house services. We generally contract out pieces of satellites and assemble them ourselves (and fix everything the contractor f***ed up). In terms of IT, basic workstations are administered by contract suppliers, but other systems are owned by the government and administered by civil servants (engineering workstations, lab equipment computers, ground support operations, data processing supercomptuers, etc.). Many of these systems are connected to the Internet to get software updates and research problems when troubleshooting. But I do know that the ground support networks for satellites and large tests are definitely not connected to the Internet.