NASA Accidentally Sells Off Computers With Sensitive Data

NASA recently decided to sell off some of its old computers. Unfortunately, though, it forgot to erase some of the sensitive data that many of those computers still held.

The embarrassing oversight came to light in a recent internal investigation (PDF), during which the issue was discovered at four NASA locations: Kennedy and Johnson Space Centers, and the Ames and Langley Research Centers. According to investigators, NASA sold computers with highly sensitive information on at least 10 occasions. The report also found an additional four computers that were about to be sold, with similarly secret data still on their hard drives. At the Kennedy Space Center, auditors found dozens of computers that had network information marked on their exteriors. Such information, the report claims, could easily give hackers "unauthorized access to NASA's internal computer network."

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NASA Accidentally Sells Off Computers With Sensitive Data originally appeared on Switched on Wed, 08 Dec 2010 14:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.switched.com/2010/12/08/nasa-accidentally-sells-off-computers-with-sensitive-data/

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