The United States Department of Justice notified the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia that it is intervening in a False Claims Act case filed against Georgia Tech Research Corporation (Georgia Tech) by its Associate Director of Cybersecurity and former Principal Information Security Engineer (the relators). Georgia Tech is involved in “hundreds” of contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). This gives them access to Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) which must have “adequate” security, which, at minimum, must satisfy the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
In the Complaint the whistleblowers say Georgia Tech’s internal assessors assigned to determine compliance with NIST were not qualified; and Georgia Tech bypassed malware requirements, in violation of NIST.
The whistleblowers also say they raised these issues of noncompliance internally over the course of several months without satisfaction but instead faced “increasing retaliation,” including poor performance reviews and forced resignation.
The United States has until June 24, 2024, to serve its Complaint in Intervention. .
Jeffrey Newman is a whistleblower lawyer whose firm represents whistleblowers in healthcare fraud cases under the False Claims Act (FCA) and also under the Securities and Exchange, FINCEN and CFTC whistleblower programs. He can be reached at Jeff@JeffNewmanLaw.com or at 617-823-3217
