Security Whistleblower wins $4.3M in Sandia Labs Suit

A network security analyst who lost his job in January 2005 for tipping off the Army and FBI about an egregious security break at Sandia Labs won a $4.3 million suit against Sandia, which fired him for his action. He tried telling his supervisors at Sandia first, but apparently an intelligence investigation is what caught their attention, and none too favorably.

So far as I've been able to tell, electronic security in this country is often a joke. My own reporting has turned up cases of airport and seaport systems being breached - not what you want to hear if safety of transportation is a concern. Or try going to Capitol Hill, where, according to experts I spoke with a few years ago, a good 40% of the wireless networks set up by government workers were totally unprotected. But major publications haven't seemed too interested - often I've heard "We've already 'done' security coverage."

And the problem extends to companies, where, according to the US government, intellectual property loss and theft runs to about $300 billion - with a b - a year. But, like with physical security, everyone wants to ignore it as uninteresting and unimportant until they get hit. Even then, unless the breach makes the news, companies are too ready to sweep the problems under the rug and hope that investors never hear about how much of their money is lost to what is often carelessness.