Another U.S. Satellite Hack Traced to China

China is suspected of orchestrating a breach of the federal weather network that compelled the government to cut off information vital to emergency response, shipping and other critical operations, the Washington Post reports.

Agency officials did not admit to a problem until about 20 days after the incident.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA, which includes the National Weather Service, would only say that it was doing “unscheduled maintenance” on its network.

In a Nov. 12 statement, NOAA spokesman Scott Smullen finally acknowledged the hacks and said “incident response began immediately.”

The assault hit a web server that connects to many NOAA computers, according to one person familiar with the situation. The individual compared the security protections to leaving a house protected by “just a screen door.”

NOAA declined to discuss the suspected source of the attack and the delay in notification.

The agency told Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., that China was behind the attack, the congressman said.

The compromised network is used by U.S. civilian and military forecasters and also feeds weather models at the main centers for Europe and Canada.

But the goal of the intrusion might have been to crack open a door to a different system.

“The bad guys are increasingly having a hard time getting in the front of these agencies,” Jacob Olcott, a cybersecurity consultant with Good Harbor Security Risk Management and a former Senate staffer on cybersecurity legislation, told the Post. “So they figure if I can’t get in the front door, I’d ride along in with someone who has trusted access and maybe ride that connection to bigger agencies.”

This is not the first time NOAA satellite networks have been hacked, nor is it the first time the Chinese have been accused of breaching federal satellites.

NOAA satellite data was stolen from a contractor's personal computer last year, but the agency could not investigate the incident because the employee refused to turn over the PC, according to a July inspector general report.

Several U.S. earth observation satellites have also been probed by suspected Chinese hackers in recent years, according to federal officials. 

A 2011 report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission characterized the events as successful interferences that might have been linked to the Chinese government.