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International Business Machines Corp. and AT&T Inc.\u2019s computer systems were repeatedly breached by foreign hackers, and the companies concealed those intrusions from the US government in violation of the law, according to a lawsuit from a former IBM cybersecurity official.<\/p>\n
William Barlow, IBM\u2019s former vice president of threat intelligence, alleged in the complaint that the companies failed to disclose multiple breaches over years by attackers linked to foreign governments and made false assurances about the security of their systems in order to win and keep federal contracts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0whistleblower complaint against IBM and AT&T was filed under seal in 2020 and is still pending before a federal court in New York. It was made public this week, after the US government declined to intervene in the case, and hasn\u2019t been previously reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The suit offers a rare account of alleged security failures at two major government contractors. It raises questions about the protection of sensitive information on the networks, and about companies\u2019 responsibility to disclose such compromises.<\/p>\n
The hackers allegedly breached massive IBM cloud computing infrastructure that\u2019s widely used by many parts of the US government, including the military. AT&T operates this \u201cCore Network\u201d on behalf of IBM, and the Dallas-based telecommunications company\u2019s systems are part of them, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n
The complaint alleges that foreign and unidentified hackers repeatedly infiltrated the network and that the companies sometimes couldn\u2019t determine who got in, or what was taken. It also says IBM downplayed or concealed incidents before entering government agreements requiring it to certify it had no significant unresolved cybersecurity issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis complaint was filed six years ago, and the US Department of Justice declined to intervene,\u201d said IBM spokesperson Adam Pratt. \u201cIBM is confident that our actions followed the letter of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n
Representatives of AT&T didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n
Barlow worked at IBM in two stints beginning in 2002, including serving as vice president of threat intelligence from 2017 until his resignation in 2019, according to the lawsuit. He was quoted in a 2018 New York Times\u00a0report\u00a0about IBM offering cyber trainings in a mobile command center built in a customized semitrailer truck. Since leaving the Armonk, New York-based company Barlow has maintained a profile in the security industry, attending conferences and giving talks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jason T. Brown, an attorney for Barlow, declined to discuss the circumstances of his client\u2019s resignation or say whether the Justice Department has investigated the allegations in the False Claims Act suit. Government decisions to intervene in such cases often take years and federal officials choosing not to get involved doesn\u2019t indicate the merit of a complaint, Brown said. He added that the allegations implicate billions of dollars of federal business with AT&T and IBM.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to aggressively litigating the matter,\u201d said Brown, of the firm Brown, LLC. \u201cYou can\u2019t sell cybersecurity to the federal government while allegedly having these security problem within your own company.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his suit, Barlow claimed he personally witnessed numerous breaches of IBM\u2019s core network and was pressured by executives to soften internal reports and omit details. Barlow alleged he knew of specific instances where IBM senior management \u201cactively took steps to cover up and conceal\u201d hacks from US regulators and government clients.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe data breaches are so large and the core networks so poorly designed that neither IBM nor AT&T knows exactly what data was breached, who breached the data, where the data was breached or whether any data was exfiltrated, altered and\/or modified in any respect,\u201d the lawsuit alleges.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chinese government-backed hackers were allegedly involved in some of the breaches cited in the suit.<\/p>\n
In 2018, the US Department of Justice charged two alleged members of a Chinese hacking group that it said had waged a decade-long campaign to\u00a0steal\u00a0the data of 100,000 US Navy personnel. In his lawsuit, Barlow said the group, known as APT 10, had carried out that theft by infiltrating IBM\u2019s networks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Intelligence agencies told IBM that internet addresses associated with its network were connecting to infrastructure used by APT 10, according to the suit. An internal company investigation found more than 50,000 \u201cpotential APT 10 hits\u201d between 2013 and 2016, the suit alleges. The following year, another internal probe allegedly found attackers had accessed nearly 400 compromised accounts and almost 200 total systems and servers in 18 countries, across every business unit, the complaint says.<\/p>\n
But because the company didn\u2019t keep access logs, there was nothing further it could do to investigate, according to the suit.<\/p>\n
The Chinese Embassy in Washington didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Officials with the National Security Agency asked Barlow questions about the alleged hacks from China, but he was told to \u201cdodge\u201d them, according to the suit. It doesn\u2019t say who allegedly gave Barlow this instruction.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Barlow brought his suit in 2020 and it remained secret until it was unsealed Wednesday.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The False Claims Act bars submitting false claims for payment to the US government. The law allows private whistleblowers to sue for alleged fraud against the government. Federal authorities may step in and effectively take control of such cases. The government can recover as much as three times its damages and whistleblowers can be awarded a portion of those damages.<\/p>\n
A federal judge in New York ordered the suit be unsealed this spring after the US government declined to intervene. The court records don\u2019t explain the government\u2019s decision and Brown, Barlow\u2019s attorney, said he didn\u2019t know what motivated it.<\/p>\n
The departments of Defense and Justice didn\u2019t respond to emailed questions.<\/p>\n
#IBM #ATT #accused #whistleblower #covering #foreign #hacks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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