In October, the Department of Justice announced a new Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative whose primary weapon is the False Claims Act, an effective enforcement tool for recovering misspent government contract funds and deterring future misconduct. The False Claims Act helps keep government contractors honest.
In an op-ed in the Jacksonville Journal-Courier, Partner and whistleblower attorney Renée Brooker examines how President Biden’s May Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity was the “starting gun for a run on” IT-related government contracts. With the government investing over $100 billion annually in IT and cybersecurity, government contractors stand to profit from the specialized knowledge and skill sets they bring to fulfill the executive order. The Department of Justice’s Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative encourages whistleblowers to step forward and report cybersecurity failures and misconduct, as a matter of national cybersecurity. Brooker notes,
As federal agencies implement cybersecurity contract rules, contractors should heed the words of Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: “Men must turn square corners when they deal with the government,” regardless of whether those corners are real or virtual.