Malwares, spyware and viruses are not just a concern for home or business, but even in Space organizations and research. Such is a case in Japan where a malware on a computer resulted in major security breach as Japan’s “Epsilon” rocket system data was leaked to different unknown organizations and people.
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has spent about ¥15 Billion in developing a solid-fuel rocket system to further space exploration and satellite industry. Unfortunately, since the data was sent to multiple places- fear grows that the research data maybe used for military purposes.
Its not clear if this was a targeted cyber- attack or an oversight, but when JAXA did a usual security sweep on November 21st showed a single computer was infected by a malware.
The first rocket with Solid- fuel is planned for launch next summer, so they were planning to be done with all the final testing. So one can imagine that the information that was sent out are very valuable data.
Source: The Register
