News ntrs.nasa.gov closed

kamaz

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Until further notice,
the NTRS system will be unavailable for public access.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you and anticipate
that this site will return to service in the near future.

Apparently, this is a knee-jerk reaction after the arrest of a Chinese NASA employee for transferring confidetial information to China. http://spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=40365

“NASA should immediately take down all publicly available technical data sources until all documents that have not been subjected to export control review have received such a review and all controlled documents are removed from the system,” Rep. Wolf said.

In other words, all NASA technical documents, no matter how voluminous and valuable they are, should cease to be publicly available in order to prevent the continued disclosure of any restricted documents, no matter how limited or insignificant they may be.

“There is a HUGE amount of material on NTRS,” said space policy analyst Dwayne Day. “If NASA is forced to review it all, it will never go back online.”


http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2013/03/ntrs_dark.html
 

Athena

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Is this all about the shenanigans i've heard been going around a Chinese scientist from Langley Research Center attempted to escape to China carrying "Classified" Information?
 

Urwumpe

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Damn... That means a huge negative impact on SSU. :(

Checking the NTRS for new information was the usual start of a new job there for me.
 

Cosmic Penguin

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If you know who Frank Wolf is, that's his typical behavior: exaggerating and playing with Chinese issues and making a fuss out of nothing :mad: (even though I am probably the last person to defend most of the acts from the Chinese government!) - I remember that it was him who pushes to ban Chinese journalists from reporting the STS-134 launch (!). And now we have got this when NTRS isn't even containing sensitive materials AT ALL - I doubt that the files would not be ITAR-checked prior to uploading, this being a technical material server after all. So :WTF: is this related to the probable Chinese spy (and note the word "probable" - I only give a 50% chance of that person being a spy, given the alleged data transfer method is so dumb)?

P.S. Maybe this discussion is more suitable at the Brighton dungeon?
 

Urwumpe

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If you know who Frank Wolf is, that's his typical behavior: exaggerating and playing with Chinese issues and making a fuss out of nothing :mad: (even though I am probably the last person to defend most of the acts from the Chinese government!) - I remember that it was him who pushes to ban Chinese journalists from reporting the STS-134 launch (!).

So, he is the modern american version of Cato the elder? "By the way, I have the opinion that China must be destroyed."

And now we have got this when NTRS isn't even containing sensitive materials AT ALL - I doubt that the files would not be ITAR-checked prior to uploading, this being a technical material server after all.

It is ITAR-checked. In SSU, we already experienced how the reaction is, if you ask for a reference from an NTRS document, that ITAR-restricted by absurdity: You can get the full simulation model for the SSME and complete test set-ups for the old military data link used for the IUS and similar payloads, but general data about the Centaur-G stage is military technology suddenly, because somebody important said so.

The closing of the NTRS will also very likely be a breach of the freedom of information act. And I doubt that Frank Wolf has paid all the decades of valuable research on the NTRS that he can decide to keep it all for himself.
 

garyw

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I think NASA Watch have covered this rather well -> http://nasawatch.com/archives/2013/03/nasa-technical.html

Keith's update: According to a response from NASA HQ PAO this morning "It's down for review to ensure there is no sensitive content on the server." Why is it that NASA cannot be honest with people in the note on the NTRS website and explain why the site is offline? What is really baffling is how this site could have been online - for decades - and not have had a process to prevent inapproprate material from being posted. Did Rep. Wolf's office actually find something online - specifically at NTRS - that shouldn't have been there - or is this a knee jerk reaction - on both sides? Why aren't other NASA technical information websites offline? When I sent an inquiry to the person listed as the point of contact for NTRS he declined to reply and referred me to LaRC PAO.

It appears that even the staff are embarrassed about it. Congressman Wolf seems to be a throw back to the commie-hating types commonly seen in the 70's and 80's.

A bit more info, it seems that Bolden himself ordered the NTRS to be taken down from public access only:

In addition to the security review, Bolden announced that he had closed down a publicly available NASA technical reports database due to the risk of confidential information leaking out

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013...ners-following-spy-allegations/#ixzz2OGagjuxK

I wonder how many foreign workers at various facilities in the US are now under suspicion for nothing more than paranoia or worse, not even allowed to work?
 
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orb

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P.S. Maybe this discussion is more suitable at the Brighton dungeon?
As a spaceflight news thread, it's completely fine here, and it would be wrong if it disappeared. If you however want to discuss related politics, you are free to go the "NASA's Future" way, by creating this thread's counterpart in The Basement, too (or simply you can discuss it in The Basement's "NASA's Future" thread).
 

kamaz

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The site currently says this:

The NASA technical reports server will be unavailable for public access
while the agency conducts a review of the site's content to ensure that it
does not contain technical information that is subject to U.S. export control laws
and regulations and that the appropriate reviews were performed.
The site will return to service when the review is complete.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Note that the original message said [we] anticipate that this site will return to service in the near future.

In other news, NASA employees got their access restored through a different (non-public) server: http://spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=43722
 
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MaverickSawyer

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So... how long before they form a committee to perform this "review"? :dry:
 

kamaz

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The closing of the NTRS will also very likely be a breach of the freedom of information act.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I am under impression that FOIA requests are handled on a case-by-case basis.

Of course, one could theoretically file a FOIA request for the documents in NTRS, except that one would have to know what to request... and with the database offline, that's going to be difficult.

---------- Post added at 08:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:05 PM ----------

In yet other news, the guy whose arrest has prompted this has been released from jail. He still has to face trial, but:

"At a detention hearing today, U.S. Magistrate Judge Lawrence Leonard ordered Jiang released after a federal prosecutor acknowledged there is no evidence so far that he was in possession of any sensitive, secret or classified material.

Emphasis mine.

http://nasawatch.com/archives/2013/03/bo-jiang-releas.html
 

orb

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Urwumpe

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That is really "for your eyes only".
 

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U.S. Finds Porn Not Secrets on Suspected China Spy’s PC

Suspected Chinese Spy at NASA Charged With ... Porn

Whether or not you’re a Chinese spy, you shouldn’t download porn onto a NASA laptop

:rofl:

Well, at least it is proven he wasn't the most productive employee :lol:
 

Kyle

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:rofl:

Well, at least it is proven he wasn't the most productive employee :lol:

:lol:

I wonder how the congressman in question feels about this situation now upon hearing that. Never assume just because someone is Chinese that they're spying for China. I hope Wolf feels like the idiot he is about this situation in particular.
 
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DaveS

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The NASA Technical Report Server (NTRS) have now re-opened for public access!
 
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