NASA Computer Networks Have Potentially Catastrophic Security Holes !
Mar 30, 2011
NASA's internal computer network is full of holes and is extremely vulnerable to an external cyberattack, an audit by the Office of the Inspector General has found. Even worse, it appears several of the vulnerabilities have been known for months, yet remained unpatched. "Six computer servers associated with IT [information technology] assets that control spacecraft and contain critical data had vulnerabilities that would allow a remote attacker to take control of or render them unavailable," the audit report released today (March 28) by Inspector General Paul K. Martin said. "The attacker could use the compromised computers to exploit other weaknesses we identified, a situation that could severely degrade or cripple NASA's operations," the report continued. "We also found network servers that revealed encryption keys, encrypted passwords, and user account information to potential attackers." It is not unusual for previously unknown network security holes to be found in large orga...