Keith’s note: By now you must be bored with my daily critique of how NASA organizes and presents itself to the public, policy makers, news media, and the rest of the world – especially when it comes to education. (see Fixing Education And Outreach At NASA. Part 1: STEM Engagement Office) To virtually everyone, everywhere, NASA.gov online resources are how people learn what NASA does – and where they go […]
Keith’s note: You may have noticed that I am doing a global critique of NASA’s education and public outreach activities. The prime public face that NASA outs forth – the way it explains itself to the public – are its websites and social media. NASA lives to brag about the sheer size of what they do online – which is easily the most diverse and pervasive of any American government […]
Keith’s note: The NASA Office of the Chief Information Officer is charged with lots of things and has dabbled over the years in “Open Government” – something that the Obama Administration championed and the Trump people ignored. There is a website called OpenNASA that is supposed to be a focal point for NASA’s engagement in Open Government. When you click on the NASA Open Government Plan (the “most recent” report […]
If you use the search engine at https://t.co/XMMHKxgwON to find "astrobiology" the top link is a post from 2003. The actual official main link for @NASA's Astrobiology program is https://t.co/igd6rpgpkl Can't find it in the search results. But Google finds it. #astrobiology #NASA pic.twitter.com/Jsu74XtDPW — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) March 25, 2021 Keith’s note: Earlier this week I pointed out that a search for “education” on the NASA.gov website did not […]
Keith’s note: Websites are a thing that people have been doing for a quarter of a century. Despite all of the fancy graphics and tricks there are some basic things a good website should do. NASA has lots of websites – more than any other government agency. The agency’s Internet reach is truly global. But it gets this global reach in spite of itself. Its web presence is a jumbled […]
Keith’s note: NASA JPL and NASA SMD recently put out a press release “6 Things to Know About NASA’s Mars Helicopter on Its Way to Mars“. Helicopters. Hmmm .. that’s aeronautics. You’d think that the Aeronautics part of NASA would be mentioned. The word “aeronautics” appears nowhere. Nor is anything related to aeronautics on NASA’s various websites linked to. If you go to the JPL press kit link for Ingenuity […]
NASA OIG: Fiscal Year 2020 Federal Information Security Modernization Act Evaluation – An Agency Common System “… We found that NASA had not assessed the Agency common control entitled SI-04, Information System Monitoring, since April 2015. Moreover, the control was classified in 2015 as “other than satisfied,” but system security officials still had not taken appropriate action to address the control deficiency by developing either a POA&M or Risk-Based Decision […]
Solar Winds, Probably Hacked by Russia, Serves White House, Pentagon, NASA, Newsweek “Two unnamed sources told the outlet that the hackers entered U.S. systems through updates released by SolarWinds, a software company based in Austin, Texas that also provides services to the White House, Pentagon and NASA, according to their website. Additionally, the company provides services to the country’s leading telecommunications providers, as well as “more than 425 of the […]
Keith’s note: Do a Google search for “NASA search engine“. The first search result that comes up is NASA Multimedia Search last updated on 26 February 2006. The second result that comes up is Tools for searching last updated on 21 July 2005. Look on the left hand side of either page. Click on simple search, category search, or Advanced search and you get “404 The cosmic object you are […]
Keith’s 18 Nov update: NASA wants to transmit their stuff to you. But they really don’t want you to talk to their people about it. Once upon a time – actually for more than a decade – you could go to people.nasa.gov to find out how to contact a government employee at NASA. Not any more. Here is what the site looked like on 28 October 2020. You used to […]
Hearing link, Hearing on Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Information Technology Management, Policies, and Practices at NASA Prepared statements – Rep. Kendra Horn – Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson – Rep. Brian Babin – Jeff Seaton, Chief Information Officer (Acting) National Aeronautics and Space Administration – Diana L. Burley, Vice Provost for Research, American University – Paul K. Martin, Inspector General, National Aeronautics and Space Administration “Our concerns with NASA’s IT governance and […]
Keith’s note: When most people hear the phrase “space science” it is logical to expect that they think of “science” in “space”. Maybe its astronomy or planets. Maybe its studying how humans live in space. Perhaps its analyzing samples from another world or looking for life in the universe. It might even include looking down at Earth from space. But “space science” simply refers to “science” – and not any […]
Here's an easy fix for you @BettinaInclan – I just Googled "NASA Chief Information Officer" and got this. Your own website does not know who its CIO is. FYI @JimBridenstine pic.twitter.com/kA5soGJkOF — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) September 4, 2020
Keith’s note: Today the White House is releasing Space Policy directive 5 (SPD-5) “Cybersecurity Principles for Space Systems” according to a media briefing with senior administration officials. This is the first policy for space systems to apply key cybersecurity principles to protect space systems for government and commercial operators. SPD-5 promotes SPD-3 “Space Traffic Management” including space debris issues and other government defense and security directives. SPD-5 notes that cybersecurity […]
OIG: NASA’s Policy and Practices Regarding the Use of Non-Agency Information Technology Devices “NASA is not adequately securing its networks from unauthorized access by IT devices. Although OCIO has deployed technologies to monitor unauthorized IT device connections, it has not fully implemented controls to remove or block these devices from accessing NASA’s networks and systems. The initial December 2019 target date for NASA to complete installation of these controls has […]
Companies Start to Think Remote Work Isn’t So Great After All, Wall Street Journal “Four months ago, employees at many U.S. companies went home and did something incredible: They got their work done, seemingly without missing a beat. Executives were amazed at how well their workers performed remotely, even while juggling child care and the distractions of home. Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc., among others, quickly said they would embrace […]
NASA OIG: Evaluation of NASA’s Information Security Program under the Federal Information Security Modernization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 “NASA has not implemented an effective Agency-wide information security program. SSP documentation for all six information systems we reviewed contained numerous instances of incomplete, inaccurate, or missing information. We also performed a limited review of the Agency Common Control (ACC) system, which aggregates and manages common controls across all Agency information […]
Keith’s note: Over the past several days media giants such as CNBC and National Geographic have been filing copyright takedown requests on YouTube – which have been granted – against people using their own material that they generated from the launch of DEMO-2 as well as NASA public domain material. National Geographic took this a step further by having NASA’s own video taken down, asserting that National Geographic had the […]
NASA Advisory Council Meeting “Virtual meeting via dial-in teleconference and WebEx only. … Note: Please be advised that the NASA large event WebEx account is being used to support this meeting; this WebEx account is incompatible with the newest Mac operating system introduced in October 2019–MacOS Catalina.” Keith’s note: Anyone who has attempted to connect to NASA FACA meetings such as the NASA Advisory Council by Webex over the past […]
