In a previous post, I discussed China's efforts to build its own space station. But now I am wondering if they need to go to all that trouble. A February 29 NASA Office of Inspector General (OIG) report noted someone may have obtained information to control the International Space Station as well as our other space missions:
Between April 2009 and April 2011, NASA reported the loss or theft of 48 Agency mobile computing devices, some of which resulted in the unauthorized release of sensitive data including export-controlled, Personally Identifiable Information (PII), and third-party intellectual property. For example, the March 2011 theft of an unencrypted NASA notebook computer resulted in the loss of the algorithms used to command and control the International Space Station. Other lost or stolen notebooks contained Social Security numbers and sensitive data on NASA’s Constellation and Orion programs.
While it is not certain the Chinese have access to this data, the Chinese have been caught plenty of other times trying to penetrate NASA's systems. Here are a few more from the OIG report:
-- In November 2011, [Jet Propulsion Laboratory] IT Security reported suspicious network activity involving Chinese-based IP addresses. Our review disclosed that the intruders had compromised the accounts of the most privileged JPL users, giving the intruders access to most of JPL’s networks. The OIG continues to investigate this matter.
-- As a result of an OIG investigation and lengthy international coordination efforts, a Chinese national was detained in December 2010 by Chinese authorities for violations of Chinese Administrative Law. This case resulted in the first confirmed detention of a Chinese national for hacking activity targeting U.S. Government agencies. Seven NASA systems, many containing export-restricted technical data, were compromised by the Chinese national.
And the Chinese are not alone. In the report, the OIG noted the Agency has dealt with approximately 5,400 computer security incidents in 2010 and 2011, while investigators have conducted more than 16 separate investigations of similar breaches in the past few years, several of which have resulted in the arrests and convictions of foreign nationals in Estonia, Great Britain, Italy, Nigeria, Portugal, Romania, and Turkey. A nation that cannot keep its secrets cannot keep its lead. So maybe we will see Portugal on the moon before we have a chance to return.