The U.S. administration partial close down in December 2018, furloughing nearly all NASA staff for 35 Days, missed wages and stalled science was not the only issue NASA had to be concerned about. The close down also intimidated the federal agency’s cybersecurity, NASA executives said at a post-close down town hall summit. Jim Bridenstine—NASA’s Administrator—stated, “NASA is one of the most attacked agencies in the central administration when the cybersecurity is concerned. Across the world, there are administrations that are very interested in what our agency is doing, as technology eventually determines the stability of power on Earth, and we are performing things that are very advanced technically.” He further added, “There are also people who wish to use it not for the well-being of humankind, but for their individual power purposes.”
Approximately, 95% of the agency’s workforce could not come to job during the administration shut down; those employed in NASA’s SOC (Security Operations Center) never ended fighting with cybersecurity dangers, Renee Wynn—NASA’s CIO—stated during the town hall. The center, which is located at NASA’s ARC (Ames Research Center) in California, functions for 24/7 every day of the year, regardless. Wynn asserted, “No snow blocks them from coming in and monitoring what is going on in our networks. We do have to guard your data, and we have to defend the reliability of all the information that NASA receives and shares.”
Speaking of the government shutdown, recently, it was stated that this might have done a long-term injury to NASA. The longest administration shutdown in American history is over, but the scar it inflicted on the country’s space plan might be experienced for years to come. The 35-Day partial close down, which induced most of NASA’s employee to be furloughed, ended on January 25, 2019, with a provisional fix, after President Donald Trump signed a continuing resolution that finances the administration through February 15, 2019.