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Verdicts
Verdict Favors Computer Analyst Fired for Reporting National Threat
A company must pay a large punitive damage award for firing a cyber security analyst after he found stolen national security information and notified the FBI. Carpenter v. Sandia Corp. (d/b/a Sandia National Laboratories), No. D-202-CV-200506347, Bernalillo County District Court, 2nd, NM, 02-13-2007.
Shawn Carpenter worked for Sandia Corp., a nuclear research facility that is part of Lockheed Martin, where he protected its computer networks from hackers. He traced some hackers, most of whom were not from the U.S. and discovered a national threat when he found stolen military documents. Carpenter said he asked his supervisors for permission to send it to federal officials and they refused, but he took the information to the FBI anyway. After he was fired, he sued Sandia. The jury was not persuaded by defense counsel's argument that his termination was justified because Sandia was concerned that Carpenter may have been doing something illegal. It awarded Carpenter $4.7 million, $4.3 million of which was for punitive damages.
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