Steptoe Cyberlaw Podcast

This episode of the Cyberlaw Podcast delves into a False Claims Act lawsuit against Penn State University by a former CIO to one of its research units. The lawsuit alleges that Penn State faked security documents in filings with the Defense Department. Because it’s a so-called qui tam case, Tyler Evans explains, the plaintiff could recover a portion of any funds repaid by Penn State. If the employee was complicit in a scheme to mislead DoD, the False Claims Act isn’t limited to civil cases like this one; the Justice Department can pursue criminal sanctions too–although Tyler notes that, so far, Justice has been slow to take that step. In other news, Jeffery Atik and I try to make sense of a New York Times story about Chinese bitcoin miners setting up shop near a Microsoft data center and a DoD base. The reporter seems sure that the Chinese miners are doing something suspicious, but it’s not clear exactly what the problem is. California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) is widely believed to be positioning himself f