IT Talk

July - September 2014 Volume 4 • Issue 3

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

www.nasa.gov

How Will We 

Work in 2025?
IT Talk

Jul - Sep 2014 Volume 4 • Issue 3

Ofce of the CIO 

NASA Headquarters

300 E Street, SW 

Washington, D.C. 20546

Chief Information Ofcer 

Larry Sweet

Editor and Publication Manager 

Eldora Valentine

Graphic and Web Design 

Michael Portereld

IT Talk is an ofcial publication of the 

Ofce of the Chief Information Ofcer 

of the National Aeronautics and 

Space Administration, Headquarters, 

Washington, D.C. It is published 

by the OCIO ofce 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/ofces/ocio/ittalk

For more info on the OCIO: 

• www.nasa.gov/ocio 

• insidenasa.nasa.gov/ocio 

 (Internal NASA network only) 

• www.nasa.gov/open/

facebook.com/NASAcio 

 twitter.com/NASAcio

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6

9

4

10

Message from 

the CIO

How we will 

work in 2025?

Virtual Executive 

Summit

2014 Space Apps 

Challenge Winners

I3P Update

In this Issue
Message from the NASA CIO

By 2025, Generation Y, or millennials, as some 

people call them, will make up roughly 75% of the 

world’s workforce. Millennials want to work for 

organizations that foster innovative thinking, develop 

their skills and make a positive contribution to society. 

At NASA we continue to look for new ways to 

keep up with the times. Forget whether it's 

practical to bring your own technology devices 

to work—in the future, you may not even have 

an ofce. It is likely that we will continue to see 

more employees co-located or working from 

anywhere. We will see a greater focus on virtual 

working and enhanced capabilities around 

collaborative practices and open innovation.

I believe successful workplaces are those that 

embrace this type of change, practice diversity and 

equity, and provide a healthy work-life balance. In 

this issue, we’ll take a closer look at how we will 

work in 2025 and what that may mean for our CIO 

community. We’ll also explore some of the great 

technology advancements happening at the Centers.

~Larry

New CIO for 

Kennedy 

Space 

Center 

Named

By Tom Villane, KSC OCIO 

Strategic Communications Committee Representative

Vanessa Stromer has been selected as the Chief 

Information Ofcer (CIO) for the John F. Kennedy Space 

Center (KSC), effective May 4, 2014. She leads an 

organization of 130 civil servants and 500 contractors 

that are responsible for the development, integration, 

and operations of the IT and communications systems 

and services at the Center. Additionally, she ensures that 

KSC's information systems are acquired and managed in 

accordance with federal requirements and agency policy.

As CIO, Ms. Stromer says she wants to improve 

responsiveness and customer focus along with delivering 

innovative, secure, and cost-effective IT services. She also 

lists as one of her goals to provide IT services that enable 

customers to work from anywhere. While these goals are 

ambitious, Ms. Stromer acknowledges economic reality by 

stating, “One of the biggest challenges will be to change 

the business model so that we can continue to provide 

our services within the declining budgets that we face.”

Ms. Stromer joined KSC in 1988 as a digital design 

engineer for the Launch Processing System in the 

Ground Engineering Directorate. Four years later, she 

was assigned to the Shuttle Operations Directorate, 

where she managed the Checkout, Control, and Monitor 

Subsystem project that replaced computer systems 

in seven control rooms at three NASA Centers. 

In 1994, Ms. Stromer was selected as the Chief Information 

Ofcer for Shuttle Operations Directorate. She was assigned 

to the Information Technology Directorate as the Associate 

Director in 1997 to form the Outsourcing Desktop Initiative 

for NASA (ODIN) Ofce for Space Flight Lead Service Center. 

She continued to consolidate KSC’s Information Technology 

services through 2003 as the Chief of KSC’s IT Division. 

After becoming the Chief of the CIO and IT Security Ofce at 

KSC in 2003, she had Center-wide responsibility for planning 

and managing IT security for all computer systems and IT 

infrastructure. In 2007, Ms. Stromer became the Deputy 

Director for the Information Technology and Communications 

Services Directorate and the Deputy CIO for KSC.

Ms. Stromer was born in Clanton, AL, and grew up in 

Huntsville, AL, where she graduated from the University 

of Alabama in Huntsville with a Bachelor of Science 

degree in Electrical Engineering in 1985. She earned a 

Master of Science degree in Engineering Management 

from the University of Central Florida in 1991. •

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jul - Sep 2014 3
The New Look of 

Access Launchpad

LAUNCHPAD

The NASA Access Launchpad, also called 

“Launchpad” is an online service that you can 

use to log into many applications, such as IdMAX, 

Webtads, and SATERN, using a single account.

NEW LOOK

Beginning in May 2014, you’ll begin to see the 

new look for Launchpad as the applications 

you access transition over the following 

weeks to the new Access Manager software.

LOGIN

The Launchpad home page may have a new 

look, but no need to worry. Smartcard, RSA 

Token, and Agency User ID are still available to 

use for login and accessing NASA apps from 

your mobile devices has never been easier.

DID YOU KNOW

Smartcard

Using your Smartcard to log in is considered 

the Highest level of authentication, allowing 

full access to authorized applications.

Id.nasa.gov

You can change your Launchpad 

password, reset password, update 

your security questions, and many 

other self service functions.

First Time User

To enable your Launchpad account you 

will need to Create a Profile. Click the 

First Time User button located in the 

top right corner for instructions. •

New

Current

New

Current

Winners Announced for 2014 

International Space Apps Challenge

By Eldora Valentine, OCIO Communications Manager, NASA HQ

A panel of NASA judges selected ve 

"best in class" solutions as winners 

of the 2014 International Space Apps 

Challenge, and the global social community 

selected a People’s Choice fan favorite. 

The judging categories and winners are:

SkyWatch, selected as the Best Use of Data, was 

created at Space Apps Toronto. The SkyWatch 

app is a visual representation of data collected 

from observatories around the world in near real 

time. The app provides telescope coordinates of 

celestial events and plots the location through 

Google Sky. Users can subscribe or lter sky 

alerts and share them through social media. 

This project solves the Alert-Alert challenge.

Android Base Station, selected as the Best 

Use of Hardware, was created at Space Apps 

London to transform a smart phone into a 

Wi-Fi hotspot by connecting to satellites 

using a 3-D printed receiver. This automated, 

ultra-portable satellite tracking station can 

log changes in micro-satellites in orbit. This 

project solves the PhoneSat challenge.

Aurora Wearables, selected as the Best 

Mission Concept, was created at Space Apps 

Exeter as a collaboration between artists, 

fashion designers, technologists, and software 

developers. This internet-connected spacesuit 

is designed for astronauts to wear on the 

International Space Station and beyond. This 

solution solves the Space Wearables challenge.

Yorbit, selected as Most Inspiring, was created 

at Space Apps Kansas City as a way to 

search, personalize, and share the stunning 

photographs captured by NASA satellites 

orbiting high above Earth. Searching by date 

and image, users can choose images from 

unique maps and write messages on the 

image to share using social media or e-mail. 

This project solves the Earth As Art challenge.

SkySnapper, selected for greatest Galactic 

Impact, was created at Space Apps London to 

measure air quality by snapping photos of the 

sky. Crowd-sourced sky images are mapped 

to assess air pollution by sky color to spot 

polluted areas and monitor progress over time. 

This project solves the My Sky Color challenge.

The two-day hackathon challenge took 

place at 95 locations around the world 

April 11–12. More than 8,000 participants 

developed software, hardware, data 

visualization, and mobile or Web applications.

"The International Space Apps Challenge is an 

opportunity for NASA to leverage our massive 

datasets, as well as open source technology, to 

invite citizens around the world to create new 

solutions to the issues humanity faces on Earth 

and in space. The NASA brand is a drawing card 

to rally innovative thinkers and doers to gather 

together where they live—and virtually—to 

collectively engage with our scientists and 

engineers, data, and tools,” said Deborah 

Diaz, NASA Chief Technology Ofcer for IT.

This year, nearly 40 challenges represented 

NASA mission priorities in ve themed areas: 

Earth Watch, Technology in Space, Human 

Spaceight, Robotics, and Asteroids.

Social media users around the world joined 

the judging action to vote for their favorite 

projects. People's Choice Award winner Space 

Helmet, created at Space Apps Valencia, 

received the highest score based on a formula 

that took into account the number of tweets, 

unique users, and timeline deliveries.

All award nalists were nominated at the local 

level from among the local winners. Submissions 

for global judging were required to create a 

30-second video to describe the project solution. 

Winners will attend the Space X5 launch 

on September 12, 2014. (Award recipients 

will be responsible for all travel costs.) To 

learn more about the International Space 

Apps Challenge and recent winners, visit: 

http://www.spaceappschallenge.org •

International Space Apps 

Challenge Staff (l-r):

Space Apps Team Organizers 

in NY. (L) Fatima Senghore, 

Mike Caprio, Eldora Valentine, 

Deborah Diaz, Astronaut Doug 

Wheelock, Alice Ng, Ethan 

McMahon, Katey Metzroth, 

Michael Brennan (R)

4 www.nasa.gov
JPL IT Recognized with Industry Honors 

By Tom Soderstrom, Chief Technology and Innovation Ofcer, and Whitney Haggins, IT Communication 

Specialist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

The JPL IT Directorate was recently recognized 

with three separate industry honors in 2014.

In April, JPL IT received the inaugural 

Consumerization of IT in the Enterprise (CITE) 

Award for “Best Cloud Rollout” at the 2014 

CITE conference. The award recognized 

JPL’s highly successful and creative use 

of cloud computing to enable sharing the 

excitement of the Curiosity landing story 

in real time with a worldwide audience.

JPL IT has again been named by IDG’s 

CIO Magazine to the 2014 “CIO 100,” 

recognizing the organization as “one of 100 

most innovative organizations that uses IT 

effectively to create business value.” This 

is the third consecutive year JPL IT has 

been named to the CIO 100. This award 

recognized JPL’s IT Technology Petting 

Zoo and its creative infusion of technology 

in the work environment. JPL IT will be 

proled along with other winning companies 

in the August issue of CIO magazine. 

In the June 23 issue, IDG’s Computerworld 

announced that JPL was named to the 2014 

list of 100 Best Places to Work in IT, an annual 

ranking of the top 100 work environments for 

technology professionals by Computerworld 

Magazine. This is the second time JPL has 

received this honor. The list is compiled based 

on a comprehensive questionnaire regarding 

company offerings in categories such as 

benets, diversity, career development, 

training and retention. In addition, 

Computerworld conducts extensive surveys 

of the IT employees, and their responses 

factor heavily in determining the rankings. 

Jim Rinaldi, CIO of JPL, said: “I’m very proud 

and happy that the innovation, excellence and 

hard work of all JPL’s IT employees are again 

recognized by these industry organizations.” •

NASA the Best Place to Work in Government!

NASA Ranked the Best Place to Work in Government for Second Year in a Row. Center Chief Technology 

Ofcers pose for a picture in front of the Google Driverless Cars at Google in Silicon Valley.

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jul - Sep 2014 5
How will we work in 2025?

By Tom Soderstrom, Chief Technology and Innovation Ofcer, 

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

As IT professionals, we are used to 

rapid changes. But compared to 

what’s coming, we ain’t seen nothin’ 

yet. Of course, no one actually knows 

the future, but by predicting it, we 

can make better decisions today that 

will help us become more effective 

tomorrow. The purpose of this article 

is to start a discussion so we can 

innovate together to help NASA IT lead 

the way and prepare for how NASA 

employees will work effectively in 2025.

It has been said that the best way to 

predict the future is to create it. While we 

may not be able to create the IT future 

by ourselves, we can certainly inuence 

it. A good way to accomplish this is to 

(1) collaboratively predict the future; (2) 

test it together now with leading industry 

innovators by creating meaningful 

and evocative prototypes that provide 

high value for our constituents in the 

NASA environment; (3) measure the 

results; and (4) communicate the results 

as visibly and loudly as we can.

So, what will the technology 

environment look like in 2025, you 

ask? OK, here’s a prediction at a 

subset of the new normal in 2025: 

3D printing / scanning / faxing is 

mainstream. Consumer robotics is 

everywhere and really cheap. All data 

is accessible, searchable and usable 

from any device. We can use unlimited 

computing and storage through cloud 

computing. Computing is wearable 

with any data accessible at any time. 

Reality is augmented via modeling by 

default through our mobile apps and 

wearable computing. Space is partly 

commercialized and NASA routinely 

partners with commercial and nontraditional entities. Over 10% of cars 

are self-driving. More than 50% of 

employees are Millennials. NASA looks 

and feels much more like a startup 

than we did in 2014 and we use 

crowd sourcing routinely. Projects are 

accomplished in months, not years.

How will we work? We will routinely use 

effective, rapid prototyping with faster, 

lighter, cheaper, and more effective 

infusion of the latest technologies into 

the NASA missions. Agile development 

will seem cumbersome in comparison. 

We will evaluate and use the most 

effective emerging tools as part of our 

normal work. Visual programming and 

modeling will be expected and NASA 

will show visible leadership to industry.

Where will we work? Simply put, 

NASA will be the workplace of 

choice. We will have a balanced, 

“startup-like” environment with 

mobile, recongurable, t-to-purpose 

workspace that enhances personal 

productivity and job satisfaction. 

Working from anywhere with any data 

and any device will be the new normal.

Who will perform the work? NASA will 

be the employer of choice and the 

partner of choice for the next generation 

of startups, industry, partners, and 

competitors. What about “the crowd” 

you say? Bring it on! Crowd ideation 

/ development / funding will be 

commonplace and highly effective.

What will we work on? We will 

be equally adept at small and 

large missions, for both wild and 

feasible ideas. We will use industry 

for transportation. We will be on 

our way to 3D printing on Mars in 

preparation for sending humans to 

Mars. Asteroids will be within our 

grasp (literally). Submarining under 

the ice of Europa will be imminent. 

We will monitor and protect our planet 

with millions of sensors composed 

of ofcial NASA instruments and 

crowd-sourced wearable computing 

and nanosats. And that’s just a start.

You want some specics? OK. Here 

is a sampling of predicted changes 

and prime candidates for prototyping 

that will show us the way to taste test 

this future now across NASA Centers 

and with leading industry innovators:

• By taking advantage of Big Data 

and Analytics, we can easily 

nd, store, share, and update all 

relevant information when we need 

it. We will provide self-service 

analytics to all who need it, so our 

decisions are based on data, not 

anecdotes. Robotic devices and 

scripts will collect valuable data 

for us 24 hours per day, every day. 

Every NASA Center should have 

at least one Data Scientist. More 

specically, an engaged and excited 

individual that is ready and willing 

to try new innovations and literally 

press any button at any time.

• The Internet of Things and Wearable 

Computing will help us to have 

instant access to all this information 

at our ngertips, on our wrists, in 

our glasses, via hand gestures, and 

by simply speaking the questions. 

This becomes invaluable in a 

hands-free environment, such 

as in a clean room or inside 

space-constrained structures, 

such as the DSN antennas. 

• We will use just-in-time training 

through videos created by 

current NASA specialists, and 

through specialized Massive 

Open Online Courses, all available 

from anywhere and any device 

via on-demand video snippets 

delivered directly to our favorite 

devices, such as smart glasses.

• 3D Printing/Scanning/Copying/

Faxing will be mainstream and 

will allow us to hold effective 

brainstorming sessions where we 

mix virtual and physical models 

regardless of where we are located.

Is this too Pollyanna’ish for you? Too 

conservative? Either way, please 

participate in the conversation and 

help us steer this train in the right 

direction, because it is already 

moving and speeding up, with or 

without us. Our destination is exciting 

indeed. And it’s all enabled by IT. •

6 www.nasa.gov
The Force 

of 2025

By Lynn Vernon, Associate Director for 

Information Resources Directorate and 

Elena Buhay, IT Manager for Mission 

Operations Directorate

Ditch the suits, ties, skirts and blouses. 

Decommission the desktops, laptops 

and mobile devices. Demolish the 

ofce buildings. The workforce of 2025 

will be wearing their data interfaces 

integrated into their clothes or glasses 

and working from wherever they happen 

to be when work needs to be done.

A generation raised on the internet 

will be everywhere, using cloud 

technologies and a telepresence 

to collaborate with co-workers 

locally, interstate, internationally 

and eventually interplanetary.

Accustomed to the speed of 

technological advances and the steady 

inux of information, this workforce 

will be adaptable and agile. Beyond 

personal faculties, an “intelligent 

assistant” will be available as a 

digital guide to help navigate massive 

amounts of data, manage data based 

on an individual’s history and electronic 

activity, identify educational needs for 

life-long planning and recommend 

professional and personal adjustments 

based on changing world dynamics 

(culture, demographics, social norms, 

technology, economics and politics). 

The individuals of the 2025 workforce 

will be an organization of one operating 

as a part of a seamless community.

With the availability of information 

and the freedom of a non-physical 

workplace, the 2025 workforce 

will be knowledgeable in multiple 

disciplines. This will allow them to 

more easily advance in their careers 

or change careers according to their 

interests, abilities and input from 

their “intelligent assistants.” 

Leaders will need to remain strong, 

transparent, and able to generate passion 

and enable employee engagement 

to lead this new force of 2025. •

IT Labs: Where will we be in 2025

By Allison Wolff, Christopher Gerty, Jeffrey Doi

By 2025, NASA seeks to return to the 

Moon, land on an asteroid, and be 

one step closer to sending humans 

to Mars. It’s advancements like this 

we plan for and execute every day. 

NASA and our many partners create 

this vision of the future and make it 

a reality. With such a vision, the next 

question is always, “How?” How 

will we interface with the data? How 

will we discover the answers? How 

will we build the spacecraft? How 

will we know what to do about an 

asteroid headed to Earth? How will 

we live on Mars? And how will we 

make responsible use of the world’s 

(including our taxpayers’) resources?

For NASA, creating the future of 

our Agency while knowing that the 

Work in 2025, A Day in the Life

By Ed McLarney, Chief Technology Ofcer for the Chief Information Ofcer, NASA LaRC

NASA work in 2025 will be a digitally 

enabled combination of real-world and 

virtual-world work environments, which 

will allow mobile, secure, integrated, and 

automated collaboration of scientists, 

researchers, and engineers from around 

the globe. A possible day in the life of a 

research engineer might unfold as follows: 

You wake rested as the alarm embedded 

in the bers of your pillow determines your 

lightest sleep cycle and plays your favorite 

song. You lift your head to deactivate the 

alarm. Pillow sensors start your coffee 

maker. You sweat through a run outside 

your home in Denver, enjoying the crisp, 

fresh air. In your solar-powered home lab, 

you prepare for work via your immersive 

virtual environment, a combination 

of extreme-resolution wall displays 

and head- / eye-mounted displays.

Your globally distributed, governmentindustry-academic research/engineering 

team has been developing and testing 

a composite support assembly for the 

upcoming crewed Mars mission. The team 

works in a shared virtual reality space, and 

today marks the culmination of combined 

virtual / physical tests. With the latest 

haptic technology, you project touchable 

holography of the composite virtual 

reality model and physically examine 

it before sending the prototype to the 

automated fabrication team at your local 

NASA center. There, a 3D printer uses the 

composite design to rapidly manufacture 

a full-strength scale prototype. Following 

completion, an autonomous robot carries 

out physical tests to verify the simulated 

ndings. You compare and contrast physical 

and virtual test results via a data analytics 

analysis & visualization engine that runs 

on NASA’s cloud supercomputer account. 

An indicator in the lower left corner 

of your digital contact lens shows a 

call from a partner in Japan. The lens 

translates the conversation while an 

audio implant receives the corresponding 

verbal translation. “Language barrier” 

is no longer a common term. You 

have a seamless English-Japanese 

discussion and return to testing.

With a few rapid eye movements, you set 

up overlay of current test information on 

the shared telework screen with graphs 

and tables of the test results for distributed 

group discussion. Your screen shifts to 

a conference room setting with your 

teammates across the table from you. 

After healthy debate of the nal minor 

adjustments, the new design is sent to 

automated fabrication. The prototype 

component will be ready within the hour. 

Following a gourmet, from-scratch, 

robot-prepared dinner, you embark on a 

virtual hike up Olympus Mons with your 

family, exploring virtual terrain derived 

from actual Mars data. Your teenagers 

are distracted by the latest music 

holos; some things never change.

Will future NASA work unfold exactly 

as described? No. However, with vision, 

focused investment, and healthy innovation, 

NASA can embrace many capabilities that 

could lead to something similar to the 

above-imagined future. Let us begin! •

(Continued on page 11)

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jul - Sep 2014 7
Collaboration in Motion

By Jaumarro A. Cuffee, JSC I3P Outreach

Innovative thinking and collaboration 

have become key tenets of NASA 

culture. Both trends contribute 

to advances in technology and 

lower, or shared, costs. The spirits 

of both innovative thinking and 

collaboration are embodied in 

Kinect Collaborative Lab (Co-Lab) 

at Johnson Space Center (JSC).

The goal of Kinect Co-Lab is to 

encourage the use of natural motion 

technology in interface design, motion 

tracking and business solutions. In this 

pursuit, Kinect Co-Lab reaches out to 

partner with universities and industry. 

This exchange allows students to 

leverage NASA expertise to expand 

their own research. It also provides 

a two-way exchange between NASA 

disciplines and industry where 

NASA professionals from multiple 

centers receive technical details and 

insight into the direction of planned 

development. The industry participants 

receive input from NASA professionals 

to consider for future development.

Kinect Co-Lab was the result of 

innovative thinking and collaboration. 

Shelby Thompson, a Lockheed 

Martin Senior Human Factors Design 

Engineer, describes the birth of 

Kinect Co-Lab beginning with a JSC 

Engineering Directorate Innovation 

Charge Account (ICA) used by the 

Human Interface Branch (EV3) of the 

JSC Engineering Avionics Systems 

Division to develop Virtual Windows 

using Kinect. To evaluate Virtual 

Windows, EV3 reached out to the 

Habitability and Human Factors Branch 

(SF3). The Virtual Windows evaluation 

exposed Thompson to Kinect and he 

realized, “Wow, this is it. This is the 

device that is going to take us from 

a mouse and keyboard to that next 

level.” The unfolding web connecting 

resources and igniting ideas was 

eventually organized by former coops Elena Buhay and Brian Schwing 

in the formation of NASA Co-Labs.

Kinect Co-Lab is one of a few NASA 

Co-Labs currently active at JSC where 

open, dynamic exchanges of concepts 

can spark another line of investigation 

or a solution in an unrelated area. 

This exchange also includes sharing 

resources, which helps groups like 

Kinect Co-Lab continue to develop 

and demonstrate interface concepts 

based on natural motion technology.

For Kinect Co-Lab, natural motion 

technology is neither the beginning 

nor the end, but one more step 

toward building Natural User 

Interfaces (NUI). Allan Stillwell, JSC 

Information Resources Directorate 

project manager and new technology 

researcher, describes it as, “You’ve 

got speech. You’ve got gesture, and 

then there’s going to be the part 

where it’s not just your computer. It’s 

things that are not normally interactive 

becoming interactive.” He admits 

NUI is a long way off. But to get to 

NUI or make possible many of the 

endless possibilities, NASA must 

keep collaboration in motion. •

Wearables at NASA

Informational presentation about 

"wearables" technology featuring 

Silica Labs and APX Technologies. 

Attendees learned how heads-up 

displays can reach into backend 

systems for hands-free computing. 

Examples were given of how 

wearables, including Google Glass, 

are being used at NASA today.

8 www.nasa.gov
Virtual Executive Summit

NASA conducted its second annual Executive Summit 

in June 2014. The Executive Summit provided a forum 

where NASA executives could collaborate with each 

other, attend learning sessions, and have the opportunity 

to hear from NASA leadership on key strategic issues. 

The summit also exposed executives to new technologies. 

Throughout the month of June executives could access the 

2014 Virtual Executive Summit from a single launch page 

on the HR portal. In addition to the website, executives 

could participate by viewing and commenting on videos, 

participating in live sessions using Adobe Connect 

and by attending the one-day onsite at their Center. 

Chief Information Ofcer, Larry Sweet provided a 

session on NASA Information Technology and Enterprise 

Services. Sweet highlighted what the Ofce of the Chief 

Information Ofcer (OCIO) does, talked about some 

of the common IT Center challenges and how OCIO 

is improving IT Security and overall governance.

Executives could also network with peers, pose questions 

to the knowledgeable virtual community, share ideas, and 

interact with senior leadership on challenging issues. 

Because executives did not travel to the summit, NASA 

saved more than $750,000 in travel expenses. •

It Only Takes a Click—A Day in the Life of a Phishing Attack

By Ken Freeman, NASA OCIO SOC Manager, and Penny Hubbard, NASA OCIO SOC Communications

Malicious attacks come in a 

myriad of vectors, but a favorite 

is the unwelcome and pervasive 

phishing attack. We’ve all heard of 

phishing, and we’ve even received 

clumsy e-mails from rookie hackers 

hoping to get someone to “bite.” 

While hackers are becoming more 

sophisticated with these disruptive 

and costly assaults, phishing e-mails 

still have some basic red ags. 

A recent attack against NASA began 

with a click on an e-mail link. Phishing 

signs were there, bobbing on the 

surface—a sense of urgency, typos and 

poor grammar, and the form asked for 

condential information (date of birth 

and password). Warning sirens should 

have been going off, but the end-user 

clicked on the e-mail and proceeded to 

ll out the form. No legitimate Agency 

personnel will ever ask for a password 

or your date of birth. If something seems 

too good to be true, trust your instincts. 

Stop and think before you click!

In this case hackers were able to take 

over the end-user’s NASA NOMAD 

e-mail account and began to send 

the same message to other NASA 

employees. Two other recipients “bit” 

and the phishing attack exploded 

to over 8,000 messages distributed 

throughout the Agency from legitimate, 

albeit hijacked, NASA NOMAD accounts. 

Fortunately the SOC and NOMAD 

teams were able to shut down the 

attack quickly. Had the initial ags been 

heeded, it would have saved disruption 

and downtime for many end-users and 

protected NASA from a costly inltration. 

As long as phishing is effective, it 

will continue. As stewards of NASA 

information, if we remain vigilant and 

heed warning ags, we’ll be a less 

lucrative target. The NASA OCIO 

SOC protects NASA from a variety 

of malicious cyber security attacks. 

They are available, internally, via 

the web, phone, and e-mail. •

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jul - Sep 2014 9
IT Infrastructure Integration Program (I3P) Update

Communications Services 

Ofce (CSO)/NASA 

Integrated Communication 

Services (NICS)

The Communications Service Ofce 

(CSO) is transitioning their Instant 

Meeting (IM), also known as “meetme”, Audio Conferencing Service 

to a new vendor (CenturyLink/PGi). 

The rst group of hosts/moderators 

was provided with their new account 

information on June 10, 2014. 

Subsequent groups will be sent their 

new information throughout June 

until the middle of July. The current 

accounts will remain valid until all 

users are transitioned—no earlier 

than July 31, 2014. However, CSO 

is requesting that once you receive 

your new information, you begin 

transition as soon as possible.

For hosts/moderators, the change 

will mean a new dial-in toll/toll-free 

number and host and participant 

passcodes that you will need 

to distribute to the participants 

in any meetings that you host. 

You may also need to revise any 

documentation that may have your 

Instant Meeting information.

For participants in audio conferencing 

meetings, the change will mean a 

new dial-in toll/toll-free number and 

a participant passcode to use in 

attending these meetings. Please look 

for updated information in meeting 

notices from your meeting host.

Training materials and opportunities 

to attend training sessions, as well 

as FAQs concerning this transition, 

are available at https://cso.nasa.gov/

content/instant-meeting. Questions 

concerning this transition may be sent 

to NASA-ASK-CSO@mail.nasa.gov.

End-User Services (ACES) 

Ofce 2013 Upgrade for Windows: 

New, reimaged and refreshed 

ACES Windows computers are 

now being delivered with Ofce 

2013 installed. The plan to upgrade 

existing ACES Windows computers 

from Ofce 2010 to Ofce 2013 is 

being developed. Whether you will 

receive Ofce 2013 via the upgrade 

or a new/refreshed computer, you are 

encouraged to become familiar with 

the new features and functionality 

included in the suite of applications. 

Training documents and videos are 

available on the ACES Web site. 

Like for Like Mobile Refresh Update: 

Phase 2 of the Like-for-Like mobile 

refresh pilot at Armstrong Flight 

Research Center (AFRC), NASA 

Shared Services Center (NSSC) and 

Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) 

was completed in late June. The Likefor-Like mobile refresh roll out at all 

centers (including pilot centers) will 

use a staggered approach and take 

several months to complete. Additional 

communications will be forthcoming. 

Like-for-Like refresh is for end users 

who will be refreshing Cellular S-Seat 

and Smartphone S- and M-Seat 

offerings with no changes to what they 

have today. Devices will be replaced 

with a new product in the same 

product family (e.g., iPhone to iPhone 

or cell phone to cell phone), the same 

carrier, the same services and the 

same phone number. Device refreshes 

are included as part of the monthly 

service fee for ACES seats and are 

not an additional cost to NASA.

Computer Patching: Users are 

reminded that software and security 

patches are released each Tuesday 

night between 8:00 p.m. and 2:00 

a.m. local time to minimize disruptions 

during work hours. Computers must 

be powered on, logged off and 

connected to the NASA network on 

Tuesday nights to receive weekly 

patch updates. Also, some software 

and security updates downloaded to 

your computer by Client Automation 

Enterprise (CAE) require a reboot to 

properly complete the installation 

process. When a reboot is required, 

you will be presented with a reboot 

prompt. Although the prompt may 

offer you the option to defer the 

reboot to a later time, it is important 

that you reboot as soon as possible. 

Delaying the reboot may cause 

conicts and/or data corruption.

Enterprise Applications 

Service Ofce/NASA 

Enterprise Applications 

Competency Center 

(EASO/NEACC) 

The NEACC Project Management 

Ofce is providing Project 

Management support to the NASA 

Aircraft Management Information 

System Logistics Upgrade (NAMISLU) 

project, including drafting the 

Funding Authorization Document 

(FAD) and working out the project 

timeline with the NAMIS team at 

JSC. The NEACC Education Line 

of Business demonstrated endto-end functionality of the current 

Longitudinal Study module on 

June 4, 2014. Interactive testing 

was conducted with the NEACC 

to train the Ofce of Education 

Infrastructure Division (OEID) 

and to initiate the date triggers 

for follow-up e-mail reminders. 

Updated spreadsheets with student 

proles were received and will be 

bulk loaded into the system.

Internal NEACC discussions are 

on-going to assess the requirements 

for e-Invoicing Phase II. The NEACC 

is working with the Ofce of the 

Chief Financial Ofcer (OCFO) 

Budget Division to come up to 

speed on the vision for future 

system integration efforts. 

The System for Award Management 

(SAM) Interface/Extract Working 

Group (SIEWG) announced that 

it has extended the SAM current 

“as is” interface environment to 

October 31, 2014. Changes are 

targeted for the 15.1 release. 

The Identity, Credential and Access 

Management (ICAM) Line of Business 

worked with the NASA Ofce of the 

Chief Information Ofcer IT Security 

to add a step in the current Center 

Incident Response Team procedures 

to have them notify the Center 

Registration Authorities (RAs) of lost, 

stolen, or compromised laptops and 

Blackberries. This is related to a PKI 

audit nding that RAs are not notied 

10 www.nasa.gov
of lost, stolen, or compromised 

devices and therefore, any related 

encryption and signing certicates 

on the devices are not revoked. 

The NEACC supported Agency IT 

Security with Entrust information 

concerning encrypted les and its 

associated usage with the Extreme 

Universe Space Observatory’s 

(EUSO) Large File Transfer (LFT) 

utility. Our external partners 

have been without a solution for 

some time since the NOMAD 

LFT Accellion appliance lost 

its FIPS 140-2 validation, after 

patching for the Heartbleed bug.

Enterprise Service Desk

ESD Face-to-Face 

The third ESD Subject Matter 

Expert (SME) Face-to-Face (F2F) 

was hosted by LaRC the week of 

June 16. The purpose of the ESD 

SME F2F was to review and rene 

the working relationship between 

the ESD Service Ofce and the 

ESD SMEs. Outcomes of the F2F 

will include updated policies and 

procedures for ESD service delivery. 

Outcomes will be actionable with 

assigned parties and due dates. 

ESD Release Update

The ESD released several new 

enhancements June 23, 2014. 

These enhancements include:

1. Additional categorization for 

incident tickets for better routing 

and reporting. Users will see 

several new categories available 

to help classify their issue when 

creating a new incident ticket 

at Tier 0. These categories will 

provide for more detailed reporting 

regarding what types of incidents 

are being submitted, enabling ESD 

and the I3P vendors to identify 

and focus their attention where 

the customer needs it most.

2. Automated reminders for 

Knowledge Article reviews. ESD 

will begin sending automated 

reminders to knowledge authors 

so Knowledge Articles won’t go 

out of date. This will help keep 

the ESD knowledge base up to 

date and accurate, thus ensuring 

our customers have access to 

the latest support information. 

3. Easy access to self-help for 

service ordering. A link to 

self-help for ordering services 

is being added to the top 

of every page in the Order 

Services section of Tier 0. 

4. Updated Website graphics. 

Users will notice a new look and 

feel at ESD Tier 0 that is similar 

to the new appearance of both 

the OCIO and NSSC Websites. 

All functionality remains the 

same, except where modied 

elsewhere in this release.

5. Temporary Duty (TDY) service 

ordering capabilities. A new 

workow has been dened in 

NAMS (aka IdMAX) that will allow 

users to temporarily request 

a second Center as their duty 

station. This will allow users to 

view Center-specic services in 

Order Services for the second 

Center, so they may order 

telephones or other items that are 

not available for viewing to users 

from their home Center. Search 

NAMS under “ESD Temporary 

Center Services Entitlement”.

6. ESD Approval Queue Removal 

Request. Allows SMEs and CILs 

to remove unused Org and IT 

Approval queues without having 

to search down every user 

who is currently provisioned 

for that queue. This eliminates 

the need for multiple requests 

to retire an unneeded approval 

queue. Please note this cannot 

be used to remove Resource 

Approval queues; those changes 

must be coordinated with 

the I3P Business Ofce.

For additional details, please see 

the ESD Release Notes. •

(Continued from page 7)

future of information technology will 

advance beyond our wildest dreams 

is a call to action for everyone in the 

eld of computing. We hope that 

everyone who takes interest in NASA’s 

information technology advancements, 

both inside and outside the Agency, 

shares the empowering sense of 

opportunity and responsibility that 

knowing and creating the future 

presents itself to us with every day.

IT Labs is currently exploring a number 

of information technology innovations 

that will address the opportunity of 

today to help shape the technology 

of tomorrow. Current investments in 

Alternative Human-Computer Inputs 

are paving the way for a workplace 

where NASA engineers can create 

and manipulate spacecraft models 

using gestures. This simple capability 

that entered households via the 

gaming industry (Microsoft Kinect®) 

when coupled with emerging haptic 

and projection technologies will 

provide a multi-sensory design and 

development experience. The IT Labs 

Technical Data Operability Pathnder 

and SySML Visualization Engine 

projects will ensure this design data is 

organized, transferrable, and centrally 

displayed on an intuitive dashboard, 

ensuring a seamless transition across 

projects and systems. Furthermore, 

IT Labs is playing a part in taking 

NASA High Performance Computing 

to the next level. Whether leveraging 

a hybrid model similar to the current 

IT Labs Cloudbursting project or 

enhancing capabilities locally, like 

the current Supercomputing Desktop 

project, IT Labs will help ensure a 

NASA culture that seeks opportunities 

to advance information technology in 

a responsible manner that provides 

a progressive end-to-end experience 

in support of the NASA mission.

Browse all the IT Labs’ sponsored 

innovations and technologies on the 

IT Labs website: https://labs.nasa.

gov/SitePages/browse-projects.

aspx (NDC credentials required) •

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jul - Sep 2014 11
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

300 E Street, SW 

Washington, DC 20546

www.nasa.gov

IT Talk

personnel with the services WESTPrime offers and the process for engaging the WESTPrime team for services.

Web Services and WESTPrime

Headquarters Migration: WESTPrime began the migration of 42 applications for NASA HQ in March 2014. Working in 

tandem with the HITSS program, 15 applications have been deployed to the WESTPrime Amazon Cloud. Deployment 

phases will continue through the month of July 2014.

AVAIL Demo: A demonstration of a proposed new Agency Video, Audio, and Imagery Library (AVAIL) was successfully 

delivered to the NASA Imagery Experts Program in late May. The demonstration site provides NASA stakeholders a 

hands-on user interface and search experience that is scalable for desktops, tablets and mobile devices. The NASA 

Imagery Experts Program is seeking resources to build a fully operational version of AVAIL, which would provide NASA 

and the public a single presence on the internet for searching the best of images, videos and audio clips currently 

housed on more than a dozen separate Web sites.

WESTPrime O&M: The WESTPrime O&M Team has been busy innovating the way our cloud environments are 

maintained. Automated patching and “hands-off” automated backups for our production infrastructure are part of the 

WESTPrime offering. Leveraging the most modern automation tools, we are just a breath away from automated weekly 

deployments. WESTPrime is also developing optimization strategies by analyzing utilization statistics and is moving 

toward being the only public cloud-based development shop in the government space.

Training: Drupal Content Management System (CMS) training is every 3rd Thursday of the month. Contact WESTPrime 

communications to register.

Looking Ahead: The WESTPrime 

team will be doing road shows at 

Ames Research Center and 

Goddard Space Flight Center to talk 

about the advantages of hosting 

Web sites and applications in the 

cloud. Public clouds, private clouds, 

Govcloud, Platform as a Service 

(PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service 

(IaaS), sandbox environments, 

WESTPrime has it all. Join us for a 

fun, informative presentation and 

discussion. Keep watching for an 

announcement from your center.

IT Infrastructure Integration Program (I3P) Update (continued)

WESTPrime Roadshow WESTPrime Roadshow