Charles Bolden intends to implement tough security measures at NASA

Did not we all assume that organizations like NASA can never loose any data, let alone get their computers stolen? Well, one of their laptops did get stolen and it contained Space Station Control codes!

The NASA laptop theft

A NASA computer containing unencrypted codes that were used to command and control the International Space Station was stolen in March 2011. An internal audit brought this discrepancy to notice along with some other loopholes in the system.

According to Paul Martin, inspector general of NASA” could result in significant financial loss, adversely affect national security, or significantly impair our nation’s competitive technological advantage.” “NASA cannot consistently measure the amount of sensitive data exposed when employee notebooks are lost or stolen because the Agency relies on employees to self-report regarding the lost data rather than determining what was stored on the devices by reviewing backup files,”.

Martin further stated that NASA’s data security budget is more than $1.5 billion every year, including more than $58 million on IT security. But this didn’t stop hackers from breaking their system 5,400 times in 2010 and 2011, ranging from “individuals testing their skill to break into NASA systems” to “well-organized criminal enterprises hacking for profit” to “intrusions were engineered by foreign intelligence services.”

It is a surprising fact that only 1% of NASA employee laptops are encrypted. Senator Bill Nelson wanted to know “Why is NASA so far behind the rest of the government in securing the data on its portable devices?”

According to NASA officials it is difficult to gain authorized access for the hackers to the space station. At times computer viruses were seen but none of them were dangerous enough to hack the system.

The space agency’s chief Charles Bolden’s take on the matter:

“I can take action there, and I intend to do so,” Bolden told Nelson, “That is a matter of behavior and personal discipline.”

Bolden has sent a memo to all NASA’s employees requesting them to encrypt their machines and devices that carry valuable information.

Who are these hackers?

Hackers from China, Great Britain, Italy, Nigeria, Portugal, Romania, Turkey and Estonia have been arrested and convicted in relation to data thefts at NASA. The hack that took place in Nov 2011 revealed IP addresses of networks in China.

What does NASA need to do?

Paul Martin reminds ”NASA needs to improve agency-wide oversight of the full range of its IT assets” and must encrypt more of its mobile and laptop devices, of which just one per cent are currently encrypted, he said.

Until then, NASA “will continue to be at risk for security incidents that can have a severe adverse effect on Agency operations and assets”.

Alertsec can save your laptops

Save your company from countless problems related to laptop thefts and data security down the road. Imagine one of your laptops containing all of your company’s current pricing structure, sales leads, and customer orders, were lost and there was no backup data! Or worse: what if your competitor got his hands on your data?

The fact that we now buy more laptops than desktops shows that the information we all store is increasingly more vulnerable to be exposed. It is a much higher risk to lose a laptop than a desktop computer.

The only way to protect information stored on a PC or laptop is by using encryption. Alertsec Xpress offers full disk encryption and is therefore superior to other encryption methods when comparing security, performance, robustness and ease-of-use for both administrators and users.

The following preventive measures can be done to increase laptop security and reduce damage if your laptop is lost or stolen:

a. Always have a fresh back-up on a server or back-up device

b. Use Laptop encryption