[ISN] NASA sells PC with restricted Space Shuttle data

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/12/08/nasa_disk_wiping_failure/

By Dan Goodin in San Francisco
The Register
8th December 2010

NASA officials failed to wipe sensitive agency data from computers 
before releasing them to the public, a violation of procedures that are 
part of the plan to securely end the Space Shuttle program, an audit 
released on Tuesday said.

Kennedy Space Center in Florida – one of four NASA sites with reported 
weaknesses in the disposition process – cleared the release of 14 
computers to the public that had failed tests to verify data had been 
destroyed, the report found. Of the four that remained in NASA's 
possession, one contained Space Shuttle related data that was subject to 
export control by the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. The 
audit, prepared by NASA's Inspector General, covered a 12-month period 
starting in June 2009.

“The weaknesses we identified in NASA's IT sanitization policy and 
procedures put NASA at risk of releasing sensitive information that 
could cause harm to its mission and violate federal laws and regulations 
that protect such information,” the report stated.

The investigators also found hard drives that were missing from Kennedy 
and the Langley Research Center in Virginia. Some of the hard drives 
were later found inside a publicly accessible dumpster.

[...]


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