Cybersecurity and the False Claims Act

The DOJ’s Civil-Cyber Fraud Initiative

In October 2021, DOJ announced the launch of the Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative, focused on civil enforcement against companies that fail to follow cybersecurity requirements that are increasingly a component of government contracts. As part of the Initiative, the Civil Division’s Fraud Section, which partners with the 93 U.S. Attorney’s offices across the country, is using the FCA to combat cyber threats to sensitive information and critical systems by holding accountable companies that:

• Provide deficient cybersecurity products or services;
• Misrepresent cybersecurity compliance; or
• Fail to monitor and report cybersecurity incidents in accordance with contract requirements.

A Multi-disciplinary Team

Crowell’s long history of advising government contractors and a wide range of companies doing business with the government on federal and state information security issues enabled our team to step in quickly and help clients immediately respond to the Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative. We have worked with companies in the aerospace and defense, technology, health care, and professional services industries to evaluate and upgrade their compliance efforts, as well as respond to DOJ investigations and whistleblower actions.

With attorneys whose expertise spans our FCA, Cybersecurity, and Government Contracts practices, we are able to leverage insights from all of these fields to create a distinctively comprehensive set of legal services for our government contractor clients. We have been focused on the development and implementation of federal and state information security acquisition policy for decades—a critical perspective made more valuable when this complex area became a high priority for DOJ in 2021.        

Government Experience

Crowell wields extensive government experience with federal and state contracting, cybersecurity, and the FCA on behalf of our clients. We have a deep bench of attorneys with experience as prosecutors and trial attorneys at DOJ and various U.S. Attorney’s Offices. Members of our team have served in DOJ’s Fraud Section, where they investigated and litigated a range of FCA cases; have prosecuted and defended cybercrime cases; and possess real-world experience in the areas of federal procurement and data security, including more than a decade at both the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in the Information Technology, Research & Development, and Security sectors.