Cyber Spies Stealing Corporate Secrets & Technology
Client Alert | 1 min read | 04.09.14
With cyber heists plundering $1 trillion in global intellectual property (per President Obama) and driving "the greatest transfer of wealth in human history" (per NSA Director Alexander), corporations face bet-the-company threats when cyber attacks and data breaches empty their intellectual property vaults, torpedo their mergers and business deals, and crush their stock prices. In their recent article, "Pillaging the Digital Treasure Troves: The Technology, Economics, and Law of Cyber Espionage," published in the ABA's The SciTech Lawyer (Winter 2014), C&M attorneys David Bodenheimer and Gordon Griffin explore the methods employed by cyber spies to steal corporate IP and trade secrets, discuss the economic impact of cyber theft at the individual corporate level (i.e., the business case for cybersecurity), and the looming litigation, regulatory, and enforcement risks to corporations suffering technology and IP losses as a result of cyber thefts.
Insights
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.21.25
On November 7, 2025, in Thornton v. National Academy of Sciences, No. 25-cv-2155, 2025 WL 3123732 (D.D.C. Nov. 7, 2025), the District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a False Claims Act (FCA) retaliation complaint on the basis that the plaintiff’s allegations that he was fired after blowing the whistle on purported illegally discriminatory use of federal funding was not sufficient to support his FCA claim. This case appears to be one of the first filed, and subsequently dismissed, following Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s announcement of the creation of the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative on May 19, 2025, which “strongly encourages” private individuals to file lawsuits under the FCA relating to purportedly discriminatory and illegal use of federal funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in violation of Executive Order 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity (Jan. 21, 2025). In this case, the court dismissed the FCA retaliation claim and rejected the argument that an organization could violate the FCA merely by “engaging in discriminatory conduct while conducting a federally funded study.” The analysis in Thornton could be a sign of how forthcoming arguments of retaliation based on reporting allegedly fraudulent DEI activity will be analyzed in the future.
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.19.25
