Government Prepares To Pursue New False Claims Act Cases

The Government is preparing to pursue new False Claims Act cases against DoD contractors who misrepresent their cybersecurity compliance status. Just last week, Deputy Attorney General Monaco said “We are announcing today that we will use our civil enforcement tools to pursue companies, those who are government contractors who receive federal funds, when they fail to follow required cybersecurity standards” See the full news release here: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/deputy-attorney-general-lisa-o-monaco-announces-new-civil-cyber-fraud-initiative This highly relevant recent bulletin from the U.S. Department of Justice also states: “The Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative will utilize the False Claims Act to pursue cybersecurity-related fraud by government contractors and grant recipients. The False Claims Act is the government’s primary civil tool to redress false claims for federal funds and property involving government programs and operations. The act includes a unique whistleblower provision, which allows private parties to assist the government in identifying and pursuing fraudulent conduct and to share in any recovery and protects whistleblowers who bring these violations and failures from retaliation.” This is a great follow-up that reinforces former federal prosecutor Kenji Price, who emphasized the emergence of the FCA as a Federal Government tool to enforce cybersecurity. All DoD contractors should be paying close attention to these developments, and making plans accordingly. Please let us know if you have any questions about this topic or suggestions for related matters that you’d like to see addressed in future webinars. This further emphasizes why you should continue with your NIST 800-171 compliance efforts and ensure that you are minimally at the level set in the DoD Interim Rule of November 2020.