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Internet Policies

Overhauling NASA's Tangled Internet Presence

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
June 4, 2019
Filed under , ,
Overhauling NASA's Tangled Internet Presence

NASA Internal Memo: Website Modernization and Enhanced Security Protocols (PDF)
“Currently there are an estimated 3,000 public-facing NASA Web sites, yet the top 10 sites receive 80 percent of all Web traffic. Additionally, some NASA partners operate Web sites on our behalf outside of the Agency, creating redundancy and accumulating unnecessary costs. Not only does this duplication of information cause confusion, each Wen site provides potential access for a cyber-attack on NASA’s assets. The shutdown earlier this year gave us a clear view of the cyber vulnerabilities inherent in operating thousands of Web sites. We need to take steps to protect our resources in a hostile cyber landscap, examine our digital footprint, reduce costs, and maximize the effectiveness of communications efforts. In addition to security risk, multiple sites dilute our effectiveness in communicating key messages about our missions.”
Keith’s note: One thing NASA needs to do as part of this effort to fix its public and internal cyber infrastructure is to totally overhaul the Chief Information Officer’s organization. They dabble in things that are often peripheral to their core charter while getting bad ratings and reviews year after year on the things that they are supposed to be worrying about. NASA has never had a CIO who actually does what the job entails. Just sayin’
Some stories about NASA’s creaky, mismanaged, and needlessly redundant cyber infrastructure – from just the past year:
Dueling NASA Websites Update, earlier post
NASA Continues To Flunk Basic IT and Cybersecurity Rankings, earlier post
NASA’s Administrator Uses Technology Better Than The Space Industry Does, earlier post
NASA CIO Can’t Even Find Their Own Directives Online, earlier post
NASA MSFC Employee Tries To Make Serkan Golge’s Past Disappear, earlier post
NASA’s Chief Information Officer Is Not Doing Their Job (Update), earlier post
NASA Still Has Big Unresolved Cybersecurity Issues, earlier post

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

5 responses to “Overhauling NASA's Tangled Internet Presence”

  1. Johnhouboltsmyspiritanimal says:
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    what about all the social media channels? running them is overhead and duplicate messaging as well with minimal reach if you aren’t the main nasa channel.

  2. David_McEwen says:
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    Yes, overhaul the CIO structure across *all* NASA centers. Back in the day when I worked for NASA each center had it’s own, essentially autonomous, CIO who reported to the center director. The NASA CIO was kinda the first among equals. I’m guessing that is still the case. Nothing is really going to change until that structure changes.

  3. Michael Spencer says:
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    “…creaky, mismanaged, and needlessly redundant…”

    Heck, I thought you were talking about the overall organization!

  4. Kevin Parkin says:
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    Items 1, 2, and 4 seem reasonable. Item 3 is the sort of absolute proclamation that, without additional guidance, will be interpreted overbroadly across the agency.

    There are many use cases for a website besides simple dissemination of information to the public. There will be groupware systems and live databases shared with specific communities, experimental/mission services that will be precluded from existing.

    On the other hand, NASA went to the moon without most of that, so maybe a return to 1960s-level informatics is the way to go, at least on the administrative side.

  5. Brian_M2525 says:
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    NASA Headquarters ought to be good for something and coordinating up and out information might one of those things. The center fiefdoms ought to contribute according to specified guidelines. I get the impression it is more of a free-for-all.