Hacker awarded $4.3M

Posted on Tuesday, February 27th, 2007 at 8:33 pm by jemmille

This might be one of the only times you see a hacker awarded money instead of being sentenced to jail.

Shawn Carpenter, a former employee of Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia), was fired in January 2005, for conducting an independent examination of a national security breach.

In 2003, Sandia’s computer network was compromised by an unknown cyberespionage group. Carpenter used his own hacking techniques and months of personal time to trace the attacks back to a group in China. When he completed his investigation he turned his findings over to individuals at the Army Counterintelligence Group and later the FBI. Sandia got wind of this and terminated his employment for “inappropriate use of confidential information.”

Carpenter brought a wrongful termination suit against his former employer. The jury agreed with Carpenter and awarded him $4.3 million dollars stating that, “Shawn Carpenter is a patriot and did what he did to protect the national interest.”

Here’s the catch — we’re footing the bill! Sandia is a NATIONAL laboratory run by the United States government. We, the taxpayers, are responsible for the $4.3 million dollar bill.

See a more in-depth article at Computerworld.com

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