Internal NASA GSFC memo: “Congress just passed a law that bars NASA, National Science Foundation, Department of Commerce, and Department of Justice from buying IT systems that have been “produced, manufactured or assembled” by companies “owned, operated or subsidized” in any way by the Chinese. The only exceptions to this rule are for hardware that is deemed to be in the interests of national security, or if the FBI decides […]

U.S. Finds Porn Not Secrets on Suspected China Spy’s Laptop, Business Week “Bo Jiang, who was indicted March 20 for allegedly making false statements to the U.S., was charged yesterday in a separate criminal information in federal court in Newport News, Virginia. Jiang unlawfully downloaded copyrighted movies and sexually explicit films onto his NASA laptop, according to the court filing. A plea hearing is set for tomorrow.” NIA Statement On […]

Judge: Chinese NASA contractor to be held till trial, Virginian Pilot “Prosecutors argued that Jiang is a flight risk, saying he tried to leave the country abruptly after a Virginia congressman publicly identified him in connection with an investigation of NASA security procedures. Jiang worked for the National Institute of Aerospace, a Hampton-based NASA contractor. He was fired in January, two months after taking a NASA-owned laptop computer with him […]

NASA Internal Memo: Breach of Personally Identifiable Information Update “As of now, there is no indication that any of the PII on the laptop has been used for fraudulent purposes as a result of this incident. However, we encourage anyone who receives a letter to take advantage of the services NASA is offering through ID Experts. The deadline to enroll in these services has been extended to May 31, 2013. […]

Testimony by Paul Martin NASA Inspector General “Following the October 31 theft, the NASA Administrator accelerated the timetable to encrypt the hard drives of the Agency’s laptop computers. As of February 15, NASA reported that it had encrypted 99.4 percent of Agency laptops identified as requiring encryption, had exempted 1,636 laptops from the requirement, and was determining whether another 2,947 laptops required encryption or also would be exempted.” DATA AT […]

Reader note: “Thought you might find this sadly amusing. I am NASA contractor. I just received notice today [29 Jan 2013] that my personal data was compromised in the Laptop theft from a NASA HQ employee on 10/31/12. The letter I received notes that NASA understands the ‘seriousness’ of this matter – so much so that it only took 3 months to notify me of this breach. Apparently the idiocy […]

NASA Internal Memo: Breach of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) Update “NASA has reallocated resources and has been working overtime to achieve the goal of 100 percent laptop encryption as quickly as possible and has made tremendous progress. In the past few weeks, more than 11,000 laptops have been encrypted, and, as of December 17th, NASA had encrypted 32,500 laptops, or about 85 percent of the laptops requiring encryption.” Keith’s note: […]

NASA LaRC Internal Email: 2,498 laptops later: The Miracle Has Occurred “As you all know, today is the Agency deadline for all laptops to be fully encrypted. I am happy to report that as of 10:30 this morning Langley reached our goal by completing the DAR encryption of 2,498 government and ACES systems.” DAR Implementation Email from LaRC Center Director Lesa Roe, earlier post “The Administrator has told all of […]

NASA Internal Memo: Breach of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) Update “NASA has reallocated resources and has been working overtime to achieve the goal of 100 percent laptop encryption as quickly as possible and has made tremendous progress. In the past few weeks, more than 11,000 laptops have been encrypted, and, as of December 17th, NASA had encrypted 32,500 laptops, or about 85 percent of the laptops requiring encryption.” Keith’s note: […]

NASA’s Efforts to Encrypt its Laptop Computers, NASA OIG “NASA Unlikely to Meet December 21 Encryption Deadline: As a result of the October 31 laptop theft, NASA accelerated the deadline by which all ACES- managed laptop computers were to be equipped with a DAR solution from March 2013 to December 21 , 2012. The Agency estimates that this expedited encryption effort will cost at least $259,000, not including the time […]