NASA sold computers with sensitive data, report finds

A report from the American Office of Inspector General has found that NASA sold computers to the public without fully erasing the information on their hard drives.

The report found “significant weaknesses in the sanitisation and disposal processes for IT equipment” at four separate research centres.

“The weaknesses we identified in NASA’s IT sanitisation policy and procedures put NASA at risk of releasing sensitive information that could cause harm to its mission and violate federal laws and regulations that protect such information,” the report states.

The report points out that managers at these research centres were not notified when the computers failed the sanitisation tests.