Cisco Systems has agreed to an $ 8.6 million settlement with the federal government stemming from allegement it “ improperly sold video surveillance software with known exposure to U.S. federal and state governments,”Reuters reportedon Wednesday .
According to Reuters , the fount began eight geezerhood ago and inherent claims related to the colonisation were unseal on Wednesday . TheNew York Times identifieda wide range of agency which Cisco will give civic damages to , let in Homeland Security , the Secret Service , all four branches of the military , and the Federal Emergency Management Agency . Some 15 state and the District of Columbia were also name as claimants .
The Times reported that the fundamental emergence link up to a Cisco subcontractor turn whistleblower , James Glenn , whose attorneys said he discovered major vulnerabilities in 2008 that could take into account cyberpunk to “ put on unauthorized access to the video surveillance system , manipulate selective information , and ringway security measures . ” While Glenn reported the issuing , he was lay off five month later ; he agnize in 2010 it was never fixed and informed the FBI .
Photo: Richard Drew (AP)
grant to Reuters , the suit claims that an attacker could theoretically tap the vulnerability to access other administrative organisation and thus compromise entire federal computer networks :
The wooing say a cyber-terrorist could then potentially move beyond the video scheme .
“ Due to the exposure in Cisco ’s surveillance organisation , any user who has or can gain access to one television photographic camera could potentially gain unauthorised access to the entire mesh of a federal agency , ” the case read .
Ciscoonly acknowledgedthat the defect could allow “ full administrative privileges on the system ” in July 2013 , when it expel patches . AsCNBC noted , the flaw made the products non - compliant with National Institute of Standards in Technology ( NIST ) standards that federal contractile organ are bear to keep up . Cisco go on to insist that its product fulfil the NIST standard during the time the bugs went nebulous , leaving the company receptive to liability under the False Claims Act , Glenn ’s sound team assure CNBC .
Glenn will receive around $ 1 million of the settlement payout , with the relaxation give-up the ghost to the federal governing and the affected country .
Reuters wrote that Glenn ’s attorney , Annie Hayes Hartman , sound out that this appear to be the first payout in a false claims cyber caseful — something that some in the legal biotic community have admonish could be the next frontier in lawsuits waggle over allegation of put on hope in government contracts . Hartman enjoin CNBC that “ It ’s astonishing that there are n’t more of these cases being work . ”
“ We are proud of to have resolved a 2011 contravention involve the architecture of a video security technology product we tally to our portfolio through the Broadware acquisition in 2007 , ” Cisco told CNBC in a affirmation . “ There was no allegement or evidence that any unauthorized access to customers ’ video occurred as a resultant role of the computer architecture . ”
[ Reuters ]
CiscoCybersecurityHackersHackingPrivacySurveillancetech policy
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