The logo of NASA.
Credit: Reuters Photo
A 'white hat' hacker breached NASA's systems for the second time and got a 'thank you' letter from the US space agency in return. The hacker, who preferred to remain anonymous, had discovered new loopholes that they then flagged to NASA so they could patch the security vulnerabilities.
NASA in a gesture of appreciation sent an official letter of appreciation, signed by Mark Witt, NASA's Chief Information Officer. The letter acknowledged that the hacker was helping protect the agency's systems.
The hacker, subsequently, posted on X about their ethical hacking attempt and proudly displayed NASA's letter in the tweet as proof.
The post stated, "I Hacked @NASA (again) and reported some vulnerabilities to them. Just today, I received this appreciation letter from them after they patched the loopholes!"
The hacker had followed NASA's Vulnerability Disclosure Policy (VDP) after he discovered the loopholes and was thus hailed as an "independent security researcher" for his work.
The letter also mentioned, "The ability to detect and report security vulnerabilities is a valuable skill in the information security industry, adding that the agency was able to safeguard the "integrity and availability of NASA's information" because of the hacker's awareness.
The post, at the time of publication, had over 1.8 million views and several admiring comments.
One educator wrote, "I teach a brand new middle school class in cybersecurity, and we have spoken about ethical hacking, unethical hacking, and “in between” hacking. Basically What used to be known as red hats, black hats and gray hats. May I share this example with my class to show them a real example of what we have discussed in our classroom?"
One comment read: "Congrats! That’s a massive personal resume builder — on top of being vital to preventing someone else coming upon the same thought patterns and execution strategy as you. Might not have been a white hat hacker that time!"
Another in a lighter vein said: "They didn't even give you a "I hacked NASA and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt" Shirt? smh".