Security News > 2021 > May > NASA Identified Over 6,000 Cyber Incidents in Past 4 Years
The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration identified more than 6,000 cyber-related incidents in the last four years, according to a report published this month by NASA's Office of Inspector General.
NASA has institutional systems, which are used for the day-to-day work of employees - these include data centers, web services, computers and networks.
The cyber incidents observed over the past years - more than 1,700 were identified in 2020 - included brute-force attacks, email-related incidents, impersonation attacks, improper usage issues, loss or theft of equipment, web-based attacks, and incidents involving external or removable media.
Last year, a majority of incidents were related to improper usage, which includes installing unapproved software or accessing inappropriate materials.
On the other hand, NASA also believes that the higher number of detected incidents is also a result of improved network visibility.
In 2019, NASA discovered that a contract employee used its systems to mine cryptocurrency, and in the same year two Chinese nationals were indicted for allegedly hacking NASA systems and stealing data.