New IT Security Engineer Onboard

By Nancy Laubenthal

NSSDC and its organizational parent, the Space Science Data Operations Office (SSDOO), welcome Jeff Simpson, the new Information Technology Security Engineer for SSDOO's organizational parent, Goddard's Space Sciences Directorate.

NASA and its Space Flight Centers are well-known national and international icons. Along with NASA's name recognition and general public popularity come other challenges, like being a target for the hacker community to break into NASA systems or to deface NASA websites. The NASA Information Technology (IT) security community has taken steps to tighten IT security while at the same time allowing legitimate business to proceed efficiently. This poses a real challenge to IT security professionals.

In an effort to be proactive in addressing IT security threats and initiatives, the Space Sciences Directorate hired an IT Security Engineer named Jeff Simpson. Jeff joined SSDOO as a civil servant in March and has already contributed to helping the Directorate with IT security issues, and has many more ideas that he is excited to implement.

Jeff was a lead System/Application IT Security Officer (SASO) on the Consolidated Space Operations Contract (CSOC) with NASA/GSFC responsible for designing and implementing the IT security measures for the space science data systems. He's had many years experience with the detailed technical skills of a security engineer and system administrator, and has managed and led teams of system administrators. His technical background will make him a real asset to the Directorate system and security administrators.

Currently, he is taking some formal training in IT security forensics, so that he can assist the GSFC Incident Response Team and the Office of the Inspector General to do forensics if there is a machine compromise in the Space Sciences Directorate. He is also assisting the SSDOO and Space Sciences Labs perform risk assessments of their computing facilities. Jeff will be investigating IT security issues associated with new technology such as Beowulf clusters and wireless communications. In addition to working closely with Space Sciences Directorate system and security administrators, he is fostering close relationships with the other IT security organizations here at GSFC. The Directorate welcomes Jeff and looks forward to continuing to improve the security of our systems and networks in a way that allows us to do our science and research as well as providing data and services beyond Goddard.