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Reverse Hacker Awarded $4.3 Million

Posted by Zonk on from the now-i-want-to-be-a-reverse-hacker dept.

jcatcw writes "Shawn Carpenter was awarded a $4.3 million award — more than twice the amount he sought and money he thinks he'll never see. Carpenter worked for Sandia National Labs as an intrusion detection analyst. He anayzed. He detected. He reported. He was fired — in Janurary 2005 after sharing his results with the FBI and the U.S. Army. Computerworld asked him what he hoped to achieve in that investigation. Answer: 'In late May of 2004, one of my investigations turned up a large cache of stolen sensitive documents hidden on a server in South Korea. In addition to U.S. military information, there were hundreds of pages of detailed schematics and project information marked 'Lockheed Martin Proprietary Information — Export Controlled' that were associated with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. ... It was a case of putting the interests of the corporation over those of the country.' Ira Winkler, author of Spies Among Us , said the verdict was 'incredibly justified. Frankly, I think people [at Sandia] should go to jail' for ignoring some of the security issues that Carpenter was trying to highlight with his investigation."

4 of 171 comments (clear)

  1. Gray and pointless. by Short+Circuit · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What he did was arguably in a gray area...on his own time, he used "hacker techniques" (not my preferred wording, sorry. Read the article.) to track down stolen data on foreign sites. That he turned his results over to the FBI is good, even if it screwed over Sandia.

    Of course, the judgement against Sandia will get passed on to the US Government in a "cost plus" contract...

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    tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
  2. Am I The Only One Alarmed By.... by Fried-Psitalon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ....the fact that a corporation was holding its own interests over that of its founding nation?

    I mean, hey, great - I'm really glad this guy got the compensation very much due him. What worries me more is that the article didn't read "Corporation ignores serious national security concerns because there was no obvious profit."

    I always wonder... do businesses really think they're immune to the affairs of their "mother country?" I'm quite sure any corporation that sees most of its factories razed would find their bottom line hit pretty hard.

    Granted, I'm a teacher by trade, and I don't have that same mindset... but even as a human being, I'm going to tend to the security of the nation that keeps carbombs off my streets before I tend to the profits of fat-cat, tax-dodging boss.

    Patriotism isn't an archaic concept; it's a survivalist one.

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    The ability to communicate well does not directly correspond to the ability to communicate intelligently.
    1. Re:Am I The Only One Alarmed By.... by Short+Circuit · · Score: 5, Interesting

      (Note: My brother's a submariner in the US Navy.)

      It's nothing new. When the US Navy put the contract to develop a new screw(propellor) for US submarines, the specifications made it virtually silent. One company went so far as to build the machine to build the screw, but ended up not getting the contract. Rather than write the whole thing off, they sold the machine to the Chinese.

      Long story short, Chinese subs are now just about as quiet as American subs.

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      tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
  3. Most amazing quote from the article by yppiz · · Score: 5, Interesting
    This was his "exit interview" at Sandia, and I am guessing a big reason for the award:

    http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?com mand=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9011832&pageNumber =3

    What happened then?

    During my last meeting with Sandia management, a semicircle of management was positioned in chairs around me and Bruce Held [Sandia's chief of counterintelligence]. Mr. Held arrived about five minutes late to the meeting and positioned his chair inches directly in front of mine. Mr. Held is a retired CIA officer, who evidently ran paramilitary operations in Africa, according to his deposition testimony.

    At one point, Mr. Held yelled, "You're lucky you have such understanding management... if you worked for me, I would decapitate you! There would at least be blood all over the office!" During the entire meeting, the other managers just sat there and watched.

      At the conclusion of the meeting, Mr. Held said, "Your wife works here, doesn't she? I might need to talk to her." [Editor's note: In court testimony, Held admitted using the word "decapitated" and that he wouldn't contest using the word "blood" although he didn't recall saying it. He also apologized for using those terms.]

    Indeed, my wife did work there -- in Sandia's International Programs section, working on nuclear counter-proliferation, port and border security issues. In the context of that meeting, it was a chilling comment. Shortly after the meeting, which management described at trial as "a fact-finding session with Mr. Carpenter," my director showed up at my office, escorted me to the gate and stripped me of my badge. That was the last time I was ever at Sandia. [Carpenter's wife resigned and is now a White House fellow working as a special assistant to top-ranking government officials.