Chinese hackers took over NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, Inspector General reveals

Chinese hackers took over NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, Inspector General reveals

www.foxnews.com

Chinese hackers gained control over NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in November, which could have allowed them delete sensitive files, add user accounts to mission-critical systems, upload hacking tools, and more -- all at a central repository of U.S. space technology, according to a report released Wednesday afternoon by the Office of the Inspector General.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Well, this kind of comes as a surprise. Makes me wonder what else they are really capable of. Reading the article, it doesn’t seem like it was just some kind a minor attack.

Paul K. Martin, NASA’s inspector general, put his conclusions bluntly.
“The attackers had full functional control over these networks,” he wrote.

I wonder what they were looking for, if anything. Or was it just a way to say “Hey, look at what we can do!”
Frightening times!


www.foxnews.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by Juston

Need Another System Administrator! I'm for hire

This is very bothersome. This article alone may make me change my major to cyberspace security....ohh and get Rosetta stone for Mandarin.

I still don't know why they even allow anything sensitive on any network that connects to the internet. Anything that is a matter of national security should be on an internal network only. Period.

reply to post by navy_vet_stg3

I still don't know why they even allow anything sensitive on any network that connects to the internet

More than likely, sensitive information was not stored on systems connected to the Internet. Some dufus who has connectivity to the Internet clicks on a fake add for male pattern baldness, downloads a trojan or worm, then whatever sensitive servers the dufus has access to are subject to compromise.

Or maybe NASA bought some routers with parts manufactured in China that had some special undocumented features.

Originally posted by navy_vet_stg3
I still don't know why they even allow anything sensitive on any network that connects to the internet. Anything that is a matter of national security should be on an internal network only. Period.

Its a matter of MONEY. They are getting what they paid for. They probably refuse to pay a decent IT salary and they probably refuse to pay for an offline closed network for their sensitive stuff. The only computers that should have Internet access is a few administration PCs, the others should be on a private network that has ZERO connections to anything resembling outside access.

Might want to fill this position, JPL...

open since May of last year

Cyber Security Researcher - Level 5

10199 - Cyber Security Researcher - Level 5

Date Posted:
5/10/11

reply to post by Juston



Nothing to see here folks, keep you attention on the iranians please , china is our ally ,look at the terrorists in the middle east ,they are "the evil doe'rs -Bush" ,it was probably the iranians pretending to be the chinese ...etc etc



For clarification ,that was sarcasme.


This to me validates the idea that the chinese hacked into the UAV that they landed in iran, they have with this proven themselves MORE THEN CAPABLE.

Whats next ? Silo's filled with ICBM's carrying nuclear warheads?

Someone better put china in check because knowing the chinese these guys did not operate without their governments endorsement.

reply to post by Zarniwoop


Nice work finding that. Dunno whether to laugh or shake my head.

Originally posted by BIGPoJo

Originally posted by navy_vet_stg3
I still don't know why they even allow anything sensitive on any network that connects to the internet. Anything that is a matter of national security should be on an internal network only. Period.

Its a matter of MONEY. They are getting what they paid for. They probably refuse to pay a decent IT salary and they probably refuse to pay for an offline closed network for their sensitive stuff. The only computers that should have Internet access is a few administration PCs, the others should be on a private network that has ZERO connections to anything resembling outside access.

Then again, some NASA employee could have been on a business trip out of the state or country and could have logged in to the NASA intranet with their NASA IronKey USB flash drive to check their email from an unsecure hotel system which by chance, was being *monitored* with a USB password recovery tool stuck between the keyboard and port in which one of the hotel "staff" will pick up later on after his/her shift is over...

Then said NASA employee could have logged in to an unencrypted wireless network where an eavesdropper can send in a sniffer to track all the important links and files, et cetera.

All someone needs is to find a way to get in, and when they breach... they breach!

Originally posted by navy_vet_stg3
I still don't know why they even allow anything sensitive on any network that connects to the internet. Anything that is a matter of national security should be on an internal network only. Period.

It doesn't matter...stuxnet hopped from the Internet to networks not connected to the internet. How you ask? Watt we call sneakernet. It's when you pull a USB thumb drive out of a machine connected to network 1 and plug it into network 2.

Originally posted by randomthoughts12
This is very bothersome. This article alone may make me change my major to cyberspace security....ohh and get Rosetta stone for Mandarin.

might make me change mine to Propaganda Specialist Inc.

Originally posted by Zarniwoop
More than likely, sensitive information was not stored on systems connected to the Internet. Some dufus who has connectivity to the Internet clicks on a fake add for male pattern baldness, downloads a trojan or worm, then whatever sensitive servers the dufus has access to are subject to compromise.

Or maybe NASA bought some routers with parts manufactured in China that had some special undocumented features.

Which is exactly why nothing that is sensitive should have ANY outside access. No internet browsing, nothing. Eliminate the cause. Allow the engineers to have access via another computer on a separate network, but not any system that has any sensitive info. We need to bring manufacturing back from China so that your router scenario won't be an issue. But, you're right...they may have a backdoor. Everyone seems to these days.

Originally posted by BIGPoJo
Its a matter of MONEY. They are getting what they paid for. They probably refuse to pay a decent IT salary and they probably refuse to pay for an offline closed network for their sensitive stuff. The only computers that should have Internet access is a few administration PCs, the others should be on a private network that has ZERO connections to anything resembling outside access.

I think it's more of a matter of the NOT getting what they paid for. Government employees these days make more than us in the private sector. I agree with everything else you said.

Originally posted by HunkaHunka
It doesn't matter...stuxnet hopped from the Internet to networks not connected to the internet. How you ask? Watt we call sneakernet. It's when you pull a USB thumb drive out of a machine connected to network 1 and plug it into network 2.

This is why you don't allow ANYTHING in or out without prior screening. Something as sensitive as data being worked on by JPL should NEVER be crompromised. Limit size of USB drives to a size where they can't compile gigabytes worth of data, etc. Small, and use a "sally port" type system where any drive coming in, or going out, is checked. Checksums, hash tables, date/time stamps of files. It should all be known, checked, then double checked. We dealt with sneakernet transmitted viruses in the 90's you'd think they would know how to handle that stuff by now.

In closing, there is absolutely NO reason for these systems to be on the internet. With a STK T1000KC tape drive backing up at the rates it backs up, and the fact it holds 5TB per tape, I can back up and fly anywhere on the planet and transfer the data faster.

You mean Chinese hackers were allowed access.

Many of you need to be retrained...your sight is limited.

Originally posted by Zarniwoop
Or maybe NASA bought some routers with parts manufactured in China that had some special undocumented features.

A real possibility.

Considering China's modern ambitions for expanding its space exploration sector, I can only assume that they were looking for details on the extent of NASA's operations. In other words, China wanted to know what the Americans are doing and how they are doing it.

PS: nice avatar. Leftoverture combined with Super Mario