Intelligence agency to try to 'hack' into NASA computers
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Agents from the National Security Agency will try to
break into NASA's computers to determine whether the space agency can fend
off cyber-intruders who could threaten launch-control and other critical
operations, the trade publication Defense Week reports.
The "penetration study" of the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration's unclassified computer networks is an effort to learn how
easily troublemakers can get to sensitive data and what NASA is doing
about it.
Teams from the intelligence agency will soon try to penetrate NASA
networks in up to eight states, said the newsletter in the edition to be
published Monday.
Last June, NSA "hackers" showed they could cripple Pacific Command
battle-management computers and U.S. electric power grids.
The NASA "penetration study," which will be run under the auspices of the
General Accounting Office, stands out because it involves a U.S. civilian
agency, and such operations are barred by the 1952 law that created NSA,
the newsletter said.
However, the law barring domestic activities contains an exception if the
spy agency is invited to do the work.
Still, the publication said the planned test raised questions of privacy.
John Pike of the Federation of American Scientists, a veteran observer of
both NASA and the intelligence community, told the newsletter that the
NASA test breaks new ground and bears close watching.
"This is the next big step in NSA's expanding role in domestic information
security," he said. "It's certainly the first reported major initiative of
this sort with respect to a non-military agency. While a number of
safeguards are in place, there are concerns about the potential for abuse
of this type of activity."
But Charles Redmond, the space agency's manager of information-technology
security, said the test was "not an invasion of privacy."
NASA preferred to have the intelligence agency do the tests because it
wanted to protect security and proprietary data and to avoid any conflict
of interest, Redmond said.
The tests will determine how easy it is to access sensitive sites and
whether they can be accessed through the Internet.
Copyright 1998 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Received on Mon May 11 12:26:50 1998