Trump's NOAA Nominee Signed Deal With China, Which May Have Hacked NOAA

"President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the nation's oceans and atmosphere agency is already facing political headwinds.

While environmental groups and some senators have expressed skepticism about the nomination of Barry Lee Myers, the CEO of AccuWeather, to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the criticism to date has focused on possible conflicts of interest that could arise from the fact that he has spent much of his career leading a private sector weather forecasting company.

However, potentially more problematic is Myers' role in securing a 2015 deal with the Chinese government that set up a 20-year joint venture to disseminate weather data in China.

The deal may spur national security concerns, at least on the surface, considering that China is a potential adversary of the U.S. Shortly before AccuWeather announced its expansion into China, Chinese hackers were implicated in a 2014 hacking incident that knocked out NOAA's satellite data dissemination. In other words, the nominee to lead NOAA is doing business with the country suspected of hacking the agency."

Andrew Freedman reports for Mashable October 18, 2017.