National Aeronautics and Space Administration

www.nasa.gov

Remote Work & Cybersecurity

IT Talk

Oct - Dec 2022 Volume 12 • Issue 4
IT Talk

Oct - Dec 2022 Volume 12 • Issue 4

Office of the CIO

NASA Headquarters

Mary W. Jackson Building

300 E Street SW

Washington, D.C. 20546

Chief Information Officer

Jeff Seaton

Editor & Publication Manager

Eldora Valentine

Graphic & Web Designer

Michael Porterfield

Copy Editor

Meredith Isaacs

Mia Roundtree

IT Talk is an official publication of the 

Office of the Chief Information Officer 

of the National Aeronautics and 

Space Administration, Headquarters, 

Washington, D.C. It is published 

by the OCIO office for all NASA 

employees and external audiences.

For distribution questions or to 

suggest a story idea, email:

eldora.valentine-1@nasa.gov

To read IT Talk online visit:

www.nasa.gov/offices/ocio/ittalk

For more info on the OCIO:

v www.nasa.gov/offices/ocio

v nasa.sharepoint.com/sites/cio/

 (Internal NASA network only)

v www.nasa.gov/open/

www.facebook.com/NASAcio

3

6

9

4

10

Message From 

the NASA CIO

Remote Work and 

Cybersecurity

NaTS Implements 

Distributed Denial-ofService Mitigation Solution

NASA’s Digital Library 

Soars to New Heights

OCIO Team Receives 

SFA Award!

In this Issue
Making smart cybersecurity decisions—whether on the job, at home, or at school—

is crucial in today’s ever-changing world. That’s why it’s important that we all take 

basic steps to protect our online information and privacy.

During October, I am encouraging everyone in the NASA community to participate in center cybersecurity awareness activities as part of National Cybersecurity 

Awareness month. Cybersecurity is critical to ensuring the integrity of NASA data 

and, ultimately, the overall NASA mission. This year’s theme is “See Yourself in 

Cyber,” which encourages us to recognize our part in maintaining cybersecurity, no 

matter the role we play.

In this issue, we’ll explore cybersecurity challenges of working from anywhere. 

It’s important that we all understand why remote working poses more of a threat 

to your security than working from an office. We’ll also look at vulnerabilities and 

ideal ways to work safer and protect yourself and your organization against cyber 

threats.

And finally, there are several key behaviors we should all follow:

• Use NASA’s Virtual Private Network (VPN) when working remote

• Enable multifactor authentication

• Recognize and report phishing and malware to the NASA Security Operations Center

• Use strong passwords

• Update software and apply patches

Cybersecurity begins and ends with all of us. I want to thank everyone for your diligence and commitment to Cybersecurity Awareness Month and helping us stay secure and safe online.

With gratitude,

Jeff Seaton

NASA Chief Information Officer

NASA OCIO IT Talk Oct - Dec 2022 3

Message from the NASA CIO 

Workplace and Collaboration Services (WCS) News and Updates

Check out the latest news from WCS (all links are internal to NASA):

• Backup Services Subscription Changes Enable 

Subscribers to Back up Data on Any Computer 

That Has Druva Installed/Activated

• ESD Launches New Look and Feel for 

Ordering Enterprise-Managed Devices

• Ordering Upgrades/Augments for Computer 

Hardware After It's Delivered

• Project Online Now Available to Order

• Webex 42.6 Upgrade Introduces 21 Fixes and New Features

• How to Move Files to OneDrive to Free up Hard Drive Space

• Recent Teams Feature Updates to Enhance Productivity 

Include Automatic Groupings in Channel Posts, Chat 

with Self, Assign Co-organizer to Meeting, and Precreate Breakout Rooms Before Meeting Starts

• See What's New with ICAM
Charles Beebe,

Scrum Master

Perri Fox,

Product Owner

Robin Dixon,

Library SME

Megan McCarty,

Frontend Developer

Karina Garces,

Backend Developer

David Nagarpowers,

Backend Developer

Mckenzie Kane,

UX & Design

Gamble Gilbertson,

Area Manager

Chris Shenton,

Cloud Architect

4 www.nasa.gov

NASA’s Digital Library Soars to New Heights

By Charles Beebe, ALPS Scrum Master, Marshall Spaceflight Center

When the NASA Library community’s 

leadership approached our team in 

2020 with a request to build a prototype for the Agency Library Portal 

System (ALPS), we had no idea what 

a stroke of luck had befallen us! Being 

selected to prototype the digital library 

platform of the future for the agency 

has been a dream come true—we still 

have to pinch ourselves sometimes.

So, what is ALPS? Put simply, ALPS 

is the agency’s future shared suite of 

essential digital library tools. Whether 

you’re a postdoctoral research fellow, 

a librarian, an archivist, or even an 

intern, the NASA Library community 

is currently building a prototype of a 

platform that will allow you to access 

the majority of NASA’s library content 

quickly and easily from any device on a 

NASA network. ALPS connects to both 

external reference collections and internal NASA systems, and it is centralized, cloud-native, and scalable under 

the hood. This will connect all agency 

employees to all library resources, 

regardless of physical location. It will 

modernize, consolidate, and unify the 

operation of the agency digital library 

resources needed for the efforts of the 

Office of Communications (OCOMM) in 

conjunction with the Information, Data, 

& Analytics Services (IDAS) and Application & Platform Services (APS).

The 18-month process of project 

development was quite an adventure. 

The project got off the ground just a 

few months into the COVID-19 pandemic; however, Bob Sherouse (NASA 

Headquarters), Robin Dixon (Goddard 

Space Flight Center), Greta Lowe 

(Langley Research Center), Kate Dunlap (Glenn Research Center), and their 

teams handled that challenge with the 

utmost professionalism and made it a 

delight for us to start getting smart on 

library tech. Even for a team with years 

of experience and multiple awards for 

agency-level custom cloud application development, there was a lot of 

potential scope to explore for the ALPS 

prototype! Also, a huge thank-you to 

everyone in the OCIO who worked with 

us and our fellow 2021 IT Innovation 

Fund (ITIF) cohort to secure project 

funding. We were incredibly grateful to 

work with the aforementioned Library 

stakeholders and Lori Parker from 

IDAS to identify the core features most 

valuable to the agency’s future shared 

suite of essential digital library tools:

• Replacement of Internet Protocol 

(IP) address-based access to the 

agency’s subscription portfolio 

with Launchpad login.

• “Ask-a-Librarian” chat with reference librarians.

• “Discovery” (library search) across 

all integrated external and internal 

reference collections.

• Enterprise search via integration 

with NASA’s Enterprise Data Platform (EDP).

• Integration with Galaxie, the 

agency’s digital card catalog.

• Inter-library loan for physical titles.

• An agency-level portal that Library 

personnel can maintain.

• A center-level Library portal for 

each center that Library personnel 

can maintain.

• Visualization of subscription and 

user analytics via integration with 

NASA’s EDP.

When NASA Library stewardship transitioned from the Office of Strategic 

Infrastructure (OSI) to OCOMM last fall, 

Perri Fox (HQ) took the reins from Bob 

Sherouse and masterfully kept up the 

momentum needed to close out the 

18-month project development period 

and kick off a 12-month technology 

demonstration to create an ALPS 

prototype. Perri and Robin’s commitment and engagement as a part of the 
integrated product team have enabled 

us to make progress at an exceptional pace and with a keen attention 

to detail. From interviews with Janine 

Bolton (Johnson Space Center) and 

Ken Wright (HQ) to roadmap development in December 2021, it’s truly been 

a treat to have stakeholders who are 

willing to roll up their sleeves and nerd 

out with us!

As we’ve made our way through the 

first half of the core feature development, we have also been very impressed by the vendors in the library 

technology community. It turns out 

we’re not the only ones inspired by 

the NASA Library community’s passion! The teams from all the library tech 

vendors have been great to work with, 

which has allowed us to fully consider 

a wide range of best-in-class tools 

for this new platform. And, of course, 

shout-outs to our NASA-internal 

vendors: Michael Pritz (LaRC) and 

the Galaxie team; Jason Duley (HQ) 

and the EDP team at Marshall; and 

Ian Sturken (Ames Research Center), 

Heather Thomas (JSC), and our other 

teammates in the Web Services Office.

We’ve saved the best for last: a huge 

thank-you to everyone in the broader 

NASA Library community for their 

warm reception at this year’s Library 

Face-to-Face at Goddard. From the 

welcoming and inquisitive atmosphere 

to their enthusiastic participation during our presentation and the presentations that came before us, we have 

seen that they all have a passion for 

their craft. It was super fun to get to 

meet all of them and play “ALPS: The 

Game!” with them, and we’re excited 

to work with Perri and Robin to incorporate all of their feedback to bring 

every patron of the agency’s libraries 

the best possible platform.

The NASA Library community inspires 

us to do our best work every day, and 

we earnestly hope to continue this collaboration for years to come.

Goddard Hosts NASA’s 

Annual Cybersecurity 

Awareness Event

By Hilary Gambale, NASA Headquarters/Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) OCIO 

Code 702 Strategic Communications Specialist, and Shannon Riley, Lead Event 

Coordinator, GSFC Cybersecurity Training Manager (CTM) and ITSATC Team Member

Every October is Cybersecurity Awareness 

Month, and this year Goddard Space Flight 

Center is honored to host NASA’s annual 

Cybersecurity Awareness Month Program 

Kickoff event on October 5. The event is 

virtual and involves much planning and 

coordination between the Goddard Cybersecurity Training Manager and Lead Event 

Coordinator, Shannon Riley; the Cybersecurity Services (CyS) IT Security Awareness and 

Training Center (ITSATC) supporting Cyber 

Protection (CP) within the Cybersecurity & 

Privacy Division (CSPD); the Federal Business 

Council; and OCIO communication specialists. The event promotes the theme of “See 

Yourself in Cyber,” which demonstrates 

that even though cybersecurity may seem 

complex, ultimately, it’s really about simple 

steps people can take to address it. The 

agenda for the kickoff event includes three 

speakers from government and industry who 

will provide participants with examples of 

real-world cyber situations, information on 

the basic steps they can employ to protect 

their online profiles and privacy, and how all 

NASA employees have a responsibility for 

cybersecurity at work.

Opening the event, Special Agent David Ko, 

who represents the FBI Houston Field Office, 

will speak about some of the techniques, 

tactics, and procedures used by Cerber Ransomware actors as learned from his investigation in that case. The keynote speaker is 

Mike Witt, NASA’s Senior Agency Information 

Security Officer (SAISO) and Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for Cybersecurity 

and Privacy. He will focus on the “people” 

aspect of cybersecurity and encourage NASA 

employees to see themselves in cyber, no 

matter what role they play. Attendees will be 

encouraged to do their part to help protect 

and safeguard NASA’s data and systems, 

as well as protect themselves from cyber 

threats on the job and at home. 

Closing out the speaker sessions is Tatiana 

Rodriguez, a Senior Certified Information 

Systems Security Professional (CISSP)/

Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP) 

Lead Technologist for Booz Allen Hamilton. 

Rodriguez plans to demystify cybersecurity 

by explaining how cyberattacks that are in 

the everyday news can affect individuals at 

home. She demonstrates that corporations 

and government agencies are keepers of 

sensitive information, whether that is personally identifiable information (PII), protected 

health information (PHI), personal information, intellectual property, data, or governmental and industry information systems. 

When that information is stolen, it can affect 

you personally, especially if your information 

is part of the data being taken. 

In addition to the speaking events, the ITSATC team will be hosting four cybersecurity 

awareness webinars throughout the month 

of October for NASA employees. We are looking forward to the 2022 NASA Cybersecurity 

Awareness Month Program’s great success! 

The kickoff will shed light on an important 

part of cybersecurity: an individual’s role in 

helping to protect personal and organizational data. With all of the valuable and exciting 

events that are taking place in October, we 

can’t wait for next year’s program.

NASA OCIO IT Talk Oct - Dec 2022 5

(Continued from page 4)
By Kelly Dreyfuss, Strategy and Business Management Officer, CSPD, NASA Headquarters; Leah Skowron, Strategy and 

Business Management Analyst, CSPD, NASA Headquarters; Dennis DaCruz, Chief Cybersecurity Engineer, CSPD, NASA 

Headquarters; Brenda Ellis, IT Security Training Lead, CSPD, Glenn Research Center; Jomill Wiley, IT Security Training 

Specialist, CSPD, Glenn Research Center; Jennifer Jento, IT Security Training Specialist, CSPD, Glenn Research Center

As a NASA employee, you are a known 

target for cyberattackers, especially 

when you are connecting to critical 

NASA information systems from home. 

Cybercriminals know that telework 

security could be an afterthought or 

completely overlooked. They will take 

advantage of security lapses to gain 

access not only to sensitive NASA 

information, but even possibly to 

anything else connected to your home 

network. 

Don’t worry! Here are some simple, 

effective steps you can take to create 

a cybersecure home office, and they 

are relevant whether you are using your 

NASA devices or your own personal 

desktop or laptop. 

Cybersecurity Tips for 

Remote Work

1. VPN/Wi-Fi Security

A VPN, or a Virtual Private Network, connects a user’s device to a 

secure server, making the connection private. That way, internet users 

can access any website or page 

without exposing their identity or 

private data. Connecting to the VPN 

ensures that you are securely accessing the NASA network. A public 

Wi-Fi network is inherently less 

secure than your personal, private 

one, because you don’t know who 

created it or who else is connected 

to it. Ideally, you wouldn’t ever have 

to use it; better to use your smartphone as a hotspot instead.

Ensuring that your home network 

is secure is paramount for teleworking. Make sure your home 

Wi-Fi network is private by securing it with a strong password and 

limiting access as much as possible. Creating a guest network 

for your router is a good way to 

ensure that your personal network 

is secure and only accessible to 

you. Be aware of what devices are 

connected to your network as well. 

Today, everything from smartphones to lights can be connected 

to your home network. Once you 

know what is connected, make 

sure each device has a strong, 

unique password. Many devices 

come with default passwords that 

anyone can learn by searching 

the Internet; change the password 

Remote

Work &

Cybersecurity

6 www.nasa.gov
when you receive the device. Securing your Wi-Fi network is a key 

component to a secure telework 

environment. Check out this cool 

video about securing your home’s 

wireless network: SSA Securing 

Home WiFi. 

2. Password Hygiene

Use effective password hygiene 

such as selecting a unique password or passphrase, minimizing reuse of old passwords, and 

changing your password on a 

regular schedule. Using a passphrase instead of a password adds 

length and complexity, making it 

harder for cybersecurity criminals 

to guess and easier for you to 

remember. Reusing old passwords 

or using the same password for 

multiple websites leaves your accounts vulnerable. While it may be 

tempting to use the same password for everything, it is a best 

practice to use different passwords 

for each account. 

3. Software Updates and

System Backups

Software updates offer plenty of 

benefits. It’s all about revisions. 

These might include repairing 

security holes that have been 

discovered and fixing or removing 

computer bugs. Updates can add 

new features to your devices and 

remove outdated ones. When alerted about a software update on any 

of your devices, be sure to install 

the latest available version as soon 

as possible. For more information 

about NASA Software Updates, 

please visit our Knowledge Base 

article. 

System backups ensure that your 

system is recoverable in case of 

malware/ransomware infection, 

hardware failure, or user error. 

Backups are an important part of 

your overall system security. For 

more information about backing 

up your NASA system, please read 

our Druva inSync Support Knowledge Article.

4. Document Storage and

Transmission 

Always ensure that documents can 

be safely accessed remotely. Use 

NASA devices and NASA-approved 

cloud services to store all NASA 

content. Files stored on cloud servers are encrypted, making it harder 

for cybercriminals to access. When 

sharing documents or collaborating, only use agency-approved 

videoconferencing, collaboration 

tools, and file-sharing methods 

from NASA devices such as Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, and NASA 

Box. For more information, read 

The NASA Approved Teamwork 

Tools List. Utilize digital documents 

as much as possible and refrain 

from printing hard copies of NASA 

sensitive information. Make sure to 

additionally encrypt or passwordprotect any sensitive documents or 

information you are sharing. 

5. Social Engineering and Phishing

Scammers and cybercriminals are 

always looking for new ways and 

schemes to take advantage of 

changing work environments. They 

may use social engineering sites 

such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and others to obtain critical 

information regarding your whereabouts and use the collected data 

in e-mail or messenger phishing 

attempts. If you receive a phishing attempt, unusual web meeting 

requests, or any other suspicious 

communications on your NASA device, please do not click on anything 

in the message and immediately 

report the activity by contacting 

our Help Desk/Security Operations 

Center at soc@nasa.gov.

As a NASA employee, it is your personal 

responsibility to protect and manage the 

current work environment from which 

you are accessing NASA’s information. 

Exercising proven telework best practices will be essential in continuing to 

safeguard NASA’s information. Remember that your telework location must 

match or exceed security measures 

utilized on site. For more tips on working remotely, please review the Telework 

Security Overview and Tip Guide from 

the National Cybersecurity Center of 

Excellence (NCCoE). STAY VIGILANT!

Block 

Harassing 

Calls to Your 

NASA Desk 

Phone or 

Jabber Client

By Sylvester Placid, 

Communications Team Lead, 

Marshall Space Flight Center

Network and Telecommunications Services (NaTS) has introduced a new service to block 

harassing calls to your NASA 

phone number and enhance 

security. NaTS manages nearly 

19 million calls every year across 

120,000 NASA endpoints, including desk phones, softphones, 

analog phones, vIPer phones, 

and conference room phones. 

NaTS processed more than 1.5 

million calls this past June, with 

firewall enforcement on more 

than 10,000 harassing calls. 

If you are receiving harassing 

calls on your NASA desk phone 

or Jabber client, use the Harassing Call Block request form

on the Enterprise Service Desk 

(ESD) portal. If you feel your life 

is in danger, please call 911 

immediately. For more details, 

please refer to this knowledge 

article (KB0021507). If you need 

to block calls to your NASA 

mobile phone number, contact 

the ESD for assistance by calling 

1-877-677-2123 and selecting 

option 2, or by visiting the ESD 

portal.

NASA OCIO IT Talk Oct - Dec 2022 7
Center Visit Photos

Ames OCIO Welcomes Senior Leaders to the 

Center. Photo credit: Penny Hubbard

Jeff Seaton presents during a hybrid All Hands, to over 100 

Ames OCIO team members. Photo credit: Penny Hubbard

Jeff Seaton and Senior leaders are given a tour of the Ames N233 Data Center. Pictured here – Back Row: John Garrigues-Ames CIO, 

Jeff Seaton-OCIO, Mike Witt-SAISO; Front Row: Grace De Leon-CCS, Neil Rodgers-DCIO Operations, Robert Chow-AEGIS, Annette 

Moore-DCIO Strategy, Milt Checchi-Data Center Mgr., Brian Froehling-ASRC and Lorinda Rodrigues-ASRC Photo credit: Bill Notley.

Jeff Seaton visits the Glenn Research Center OCIO All Hands on July 11.

8 www.nasa.gov
Stealthwatch Enhances Network Security and Supports 

Presidential Executive Order for Cybersecurity

By Sylvester Placid, Communications Team Lead, Marshall Space Flight Center

Stealthwatch is a Cisco tool that 

provides advanced network flow 

monitoring and analysis within the 

NASA environment. Stealthwatch 

provides network traffic visibility and 

analysis across the current Network 

and Telecommunications Services 

(NaTS) legacy local area network (LAN) 

environment, and the new Software 

Defined Access (SDA) fabric-based 

environment. Stealthwatch can be 

leveraged as a critical resource to help 

identify and verify micro-segmentation 

security policies. Micro-segmentation 

is a critical component of the National 

Institute of Standards and Technology 

(NIST) 800-207 Zero Trust Architecture. 

The objective is to achieve an end-toend, zero-trust/least-privilege architecture across the agency with continuous monitoring, analysis, and real-time 

enforcement for local area networks, 

data centers, and cloud environments. 

NaTS has already deployed Stealthwatch at Armstrong Flight Research 

Center (AFRC), at Langley Research 

Center (LaRC), and within NASA 

Communications (NASCOM) mission 

environments. Deploying Stealthwatch 

as an enterprise network monitoring 

tool is part of the NASA response to 

the Presidential Executive Order to 

improve the Nation’s cybersecurity and 

protect Federal Government networks.

By Sylvester Placid, Communications Team Lead, Marshall Space Flight Center

Last year, Network and Telecommunications Services (NaTS) began 

a project to deploy an agencywide 

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) 

mitigation solution. An attacker uses 

DDoS methods to overwhelm a compute server with malicious traffic 

from numerous clients that reside on 

networks around the globe. Utilizing a partnership between one of our 

network equipment vendors and our 

DDoS mitigation provider, we deployed 

the solution earlier this year. The solution has already blocked its first largescale attack since being deployed. 

Blocking this attack protected NASA 

network services and ensured network 

availability to NASA end users.

NaTS Implements Distributed Denialof-Service Mitigation Solution

NASA OCIO IT Talk Oct - Dec 2022 9
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Office of the Chief Information Officer

300 E Street SW

Washington, DC 20546

www.nasa.gov

OCIO Team Receives SFA Award!

Eldora Valentine, OCIO Communications Manager, NASA Headquarters

Congratulations to the cross-center Cloud 

team, which includes JSC/Aerospace, 

Microsoft, and Cloud Computing Services/

MSFC Azure for receiving a 2022 Space 

Flight Awareness Award for the JSC Space 

Gloves project. The SFA Award recognizes small groups of employees that have 

demonstrated exemplary teamwork while 

accomplishing a particular task or goal in 

support of the human space flight program.

The Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Glove 

inspection team contributed to the JSC 

Human Space Flight program by applying Artificial Intelligence and Machine 

Learning (AIML) to help astronauts on 

the International Space Station (ISS). 

Through an innovative pilot, a new prototype model helped detect spacesuit 

glove damage through rapid inspection.

The glove inspection process is traditionally 

performed by a group of individuals and requires multiple days to analyze data and develop recommendations. While on the ISS, 

the AIML model was able to perform diagnostics and generate a recommendation in 

less than 45 seconds, validating how AIML 

technology can benefit human space flight. 

For more information about SFA awards, 

visit https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/sfa/space-flight-awareness.

IT Talk