A report released by the NASA Office of Inspector General (OIG) claims hackers were able to infiltrate NASA's network using a vulnerable, unapproved Raspberry Pi in its April 2018 data breach.
In the report, "Cybersecurity Management and Oversight at The Jet Propulsion Laboratory" officials claim that in the April attack, hackers stole over 500 MB of sensitive data. Two files compromised contained information relating to international traffic in arms regulations and projects like the Mars mission. OIG claims that the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) computer network was the primary target of the attack.
OIG mentions that the unauthorized Raspberry Pi was used as the entry point to the network of JPL. A shared network gateway was then hacked to get deeper into the network - leaving hackers access to two of the three primary JPL networks.
This intrusion resulted in an advanced persistent threat (APT) whereby attackers were able to go undetected for nearly a year before being discovered. There was no mention of a specific group responsible for the attack.
Since the incident, JPL claims to have deployed additional monitoring agents on its firewalls in order to closely monitor any suspicious activities on its networks.
Other security controls NNT recommends include segregating shared environments connected to the network gateway, routinely review logs, and continuously monitor for compliance. Start with a strong understanding of what your organization's normal computing baseline is and closely monitor for any deviations from your safe baseline using self-learning whitelisting technology and threat intelligence.
We define this process as Security Through System Integrity. To learn more about Security Through System Integrity, download our solution brief.
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