NASA sends thank-you letter to Turkish researcher for exposing security gaps

DENİZLİ

A Turkish cybersecurity researcher from the western city of Denizli has received an official letter of thanks from NASA after identifying four serious security vulnerabilities in the agency’s systems.

The 28-year-old Hasan İsmail Gülkaya, a vocational high school graduate trained in industrial automation, reported the flaws through NASA’s Vulnerability Disclosure Program (VDP), enabling the agency to address the issues before they were exploited.

According to Gülkaya, one of the four vulnerabilities he discovered at NASA allowed access to meeting details of senior-level executives, while the remaining three posed risks that could have caused financial damage to the agency.

Gülkaya documented each issue and submitted detailed reports to NASA.

In the letter, NASA thanked Gülkaya for acting as an independent security researcher and for responsibly reporting the vulnerabilities in line with the agency’s disclosure policies.

“I reported four vulnerabilities to NASA about two months ago. They told me they would fix them and later sent a thank-you letter signed by NASA’s security chief. It was very exciting,” he said. “This letter strengthened my career, and I plan to continue in this field.”