JAXA Reports Virus Resulting in Theft of Space Rocket Information

JAXA the space agency of Japan has stated that somebody, with the help of certain PC-virus, managed to steal information regarding a latest rocket the agency built, out of a desktop PC, so published The New York Times dated November 30, 2012.

Actually, according to JAXA, the agency discovered clues of some virus infecting one lone employee's PC which also garnered data as well as dispatched that same data outside the agency. JAXA stated that it wasn't yet clear as to what information went missing due to the breach; however, there were directions and working details regarding the space shuttle namely Epsilon along with many related rockets on that PC.

Experts reportedly, are investigating about what other data got leaked along with if the infection spread across other PCs too. The employee as mentioned understandably served at the northeast Tokyo's Tsubuka site of JAXA.

Originally a virus was spotted, Wednesday (November 21, 2012), residing on a PC following which the device was instantly quarantined, JAXA said. Thereafter, more investigations were conducted which revealed leakage of information on November 30, 2012.

The agency doesn't yet clearly know if the breach was a random mischief alternatively any deliberate cyber-assault.

Meanwhile, JAXA expressed regrets for the data-breach as well as informed that it'll probe further for finding out the exact items that got leaked. It also assured of embracing stringent security towards prevention of any future such incidents. Examiner.com published this dated December 1, 2012.

Importantly, in expectation of surpassing USA, Europe, China, Russia and others in the field of providing vehicles for satellite launches, Japan fabricated the Epsilon that cuts on expenditure while enhances the pace of launch incidences. Perhaps that has made the country a repeated target of attacks by cyber-criminals. For e.g. recently the defense companies in Japan encountered likewise attacks, with a few found to originate from China.

Besides, JAXA, during March 2012, stated that it completed one probe into a July 2011 incident wherein one employee misguided via a personalized e-mail let a virus infect his PC. Thereafter, non-confidential graphic data and approximately 1,000 e-mail ids got leaked from that system, JAXA outlined.

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