GAO: Hackers penetrating national weather satellites.

[Free Vulcan]

U.S. weather satellites were breached 10 times over the course of a year, according to a congressional agency.

The hacks of the Joint Polar Satellite System took place between August 2014 and August 2015, according to the report published by the Government Accountability Office. The incidents were classified as ranging from medium to high severity, and included "hostile probes, improper usage, unauthorized access, password sharing and other IT-related security concerns."

The report, issued this week by GAO IT Director David Powner, found that the most significant issue was the threat posed by unresolved vulnerabilities. Though federal guidelines require issues to be fixed within 30 days, Powner said, the program had more than 1,400 critical to high risk vulnerabilities more than four months old at the end of the reporting period.

Read more: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/gao-hackers-penetrating-national-weather-satellites/article/2591761

[r9etb]

Very misleading article.  The incidents were hacks of the GROUND SYSTEM (itself a nebulous term).

The full quote:

Like other federal agencies, NOAA has experienced several recent information security incidents regarding unauthorized access to web servers and computers.  Specifically, NOAA officials reported 10 medium and high severity incidents related to the JPSS ground system between August 2014 and August 2015. Of these, NOAA has closed 6 of the 10 incidents. The incidents that were closed involved hostile probes, improper usage, unauthorized access, password sharing, and other IT-related security concerns.

(emphasis mine)

So the satellites themselves were not affected, and it is unlikely that the "ground systems" in question were related to satellite command and control (which tend to be isolated).