Cyber Incident Victim: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Date:
Mar 2016
Location:
United States of America
Summary
A hacker group linked to Anonymous, identified as New World Hacking, launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack against the space agency's systems as part of Operation Censorship, alleging the organization withheld critical information about ISIS from the public. The attackers claimed to have disrupted the primary website and email servers, though the website remained operational despite their assertions of partial system disruptions. The group provided unspecified evidence of impact but did not disclose details of the allegedly concealed data, stating the incident served as preparation for a planned cyber campaign against Donald Trump's election efforts. NASA neither confirmed nor denied the attack at the time of reporting.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 2 motives | 1 technique |
| Threat Actor | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 actor | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
On March 19-20, 2016, NASA’s computer systems were targeted in a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack by the New World Hacking (NWH) team, a group affiliated with the Anonymous hacktivist collective. The attack occurred as part of Operation Censorship (#OPCensorship), a broader campaign against perceived government secrecy. Hackers claimed to have disrupted NASA’s primary website and email servers, though public access to NASA’s main website remained operational during and after the incident. The NWH group provided unspecified evidence suggesting partial system disruptions, described as "aftershocks" of the attack. The group cited NASA’s alleged withholding of undisclosed information about ISIS as motivation, though they refused to elaborate on the nature of this information or provide evidence of its existence.
The NWH team had prior notoriety for targeting high-profile entities including the BBC, HSBC UK, Donald Trump’s campaign website, and Xbox Live services. They framed the NASA attack as a "practice run" for a planned April Fool’s Day cyber campaign against Trump, explicitly warning, "We want Trump to know that he is next." NASA neither confirmed nor denied the attack’s occurrence or impact at the time of reporting. No technical details regarding attack duration, mitigation efforts, or specific affected subsystems beyond the email servers were disclosed publicly by NASA or independently verified. The incident highlighted ongoing tensions between hacktivist groups and government agencies over transparency but yielded no conclusive evidence of data breaches or prolonged service outages attributable to the attack.