NASA forgets to wipe Space Centre hard drives

NASA has had its wrists slapped for releasing computers to the public and chucking them away without properly wiping data. So if you’ve got a latent ambition to be the next person on the moon, then now might be the time to start chasing your dreams. First stop: NASA’s wheely bins.

The computers are being chucked as part of the dissolution of the Space Shuttle Program. Computers have been found with Space Shuttle data not wiped properly, and missing hard drives resurfaced with sloppily erased info and chucked in a public skip. Pallets of computers were also found with the NASA IP address written on the side.

Understandably, the audit that brought up the problems hasn’t been well received. NASA’s chief information officer agreed to update the sanitisation policy, but inspectors weren’t satisfied because they were “troubled that management’s response does not reflect the sense of urgency we believe is required to address the serious security issues uncovered by our audit. Accordingly, we consider the recommendations to be unresolved.”

Which means that NASA might still be dumping the Space Shuttle plans in a skip as we speak.

What would you most like to find on a badly erased NASA hard drive?

[via The Register]

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