The infiltration was only spotted and stopped after the hackers roamed the network undetected for almost a year
The United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration, better known as NASA, suffered a security incident recently that saw hackers make off with sensitive data relating to the agency’s Mars missions, including details about the Curiosity rover.
The breach, which affected NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), went undetected for 10 months, reads a report by the NASA Office of the Inspector General (OIG).
“In April 2018 JPL discovered an account belonging to an external user had been compromised and used to steal approximately 500 megabytes of data from one of its major mission systems,” reads the report, attributing the intrusion to an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) group.
But just as notable is how the breach occurred. It turns out that the hackers exploited a Raspberry Pi, which was attached to the JPL network without authorization, as a launch pad for getting inside and moving laterally across the network.
There’s no word on who was behind the intrusion or, indeed, who connected the diminutive, single-board computer, which can retail for as little as US$25, to the network [As it happens, today saw the unveiling of the device’s fourth incarnation].
What is abundantly clear, however, is that OIG wasn’t impressed with the space agency’s cybersecurity posture.
Dropping the ball
“Over the past 10 years, JPL has experienced several notable cybersecurity incidents that have compromised major segments of its IT network,” ..
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