No loss of data from hacking of Antrix website, says ISRO chief

The hacking of home page of Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of ISRO, has not led to any loss of sensitive data, says AS Kiran Kumar, Chairman.

The incident was reported two days after ISRO’s successful launch of one of its heaviest missions of five British commercial satellites on-board PSLV-C28 from Sriharikota on Friday.

The home page hosted by a Mumbai-based agency had displayed the message ‘site under construction’ after hacking. It was subjected to what is now being categorised as a ‘pharma hack.’

This type of hacking happens frequently with sites running obsolete copies of popular content management systems such as WordPress or Joomla and/or out of date add-ons within those systems.

ISRO had already initiated a process of moving the site internally and had managed to secure all data in advance.

Asked how safe ISRO systems are from hackers, Kiran Kumar said that systems audit is an ongoing process subject to review from time to time and are constantly updated.

The space agency is planning to send upwards of 10 satellites every year starting from this year. Launch of as many satellites a year means that ISRO will be almost doubling the number of satellite launches.

“Currently, we are launching five to six satellites every year. The idea is to expand our space programmes and drive capacity building to meet with demand,” Kiran Kumar, who is on a visit to Vikram Sarabhai Research Centre (VSSC) here, said today.

Thirty launches are being planned over the next three years, Kiran Kumar said. Already, the ISRO has a busy year ahead for 2015.

The constellation of Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) will be rounded off by launching three more satellites to operationalise the navigation system.

The next launch going to take place is GSLV Mark-II. Satellite has already reached Sriharikota and is going through final tests. “We plan to make the next launch in August,” Kiran Kumar said.

The configuration has been finalised and there has been significant changes in the original plan, he said.

The other planned launches this year are AstroSat, IRNSS 1E, IRNSS 1F, IRNSS 1G and GSAT 15.

The test-flight of the Re-usable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD) will be taken up anytime after October, said K Sivan, Director, VSSC.

As for future missions beyond Chandrayaan and Mars, Kiran Kumar said that the space agency has been looking at three options – a Venus mission, a second Mars Mission or an asteroid mission.