Whistleblowing

1
Whistle-blowing

• By Maureen
• Busam

2
About Maureen Busam

• I am a native of Virginia Beach
• I graduated from Green Run H.S. in 1983
• I am a senior at Virginia Wesleyan College
• I have been employed with GEICO for 21 years
• I have been married for 20 years and I have 2
  children

3
What is whistle-blowing?

• It is when person takes a concern (such as
  suspected abuse or fraud) outside of the
  organization in which it is occurring
• The person with the concern must be affiliated
  with the organization

4
Generally..

• The misconduct is a violation of law, rule,
  regulation and/or a direct threat to public
  interest

5
How whistle-blowing relates to computer
technology

• Computer forensics is the process of examining
  digital evidence for use in a criminal or other
  legal investigation
• Computer security professionals play a role in
  identifying, proving and stopping computer fraud
• Computer forensics is an excellent means of
  uncovering critical information tracking the
  flow of information

6
There are two types of whistle blowers

• Internal whistle -blowers report misconduct to
  another employee or a superior within their
  organization

• External whistle-blowers report misconduct to
  outside persons or entities

7
Reasons why someone would blow the whistle are

• A violation of a law, rule or regulation
• Gross mismanagement
• A gross waste of funds
• An abuse of authority
• A substantial and specific danger to public
  health or safety

8
Reactions to whistle-blowers

• They are ostracized by their co-workers
• Discriminated against by future potential
  employers
• Fired from their organizations

9
Examples of retaliation on whistle- blowers

• In the school district of Albany, a computer
  network specialist found pornography on the
  school superintendents computer. As a result,
  he expects to be out a job

10
More.

• In Washington DC, employees of Northrup Grumman
  were threatened with the loss of their jobs if
  they disclosed computer problems that caused
  thousands of e-mail messages to escape reach of a
  congressional subpoena

11
Issues with computer data

• Computer data can mysteriously disappear when an
  investigation is underway
• In the case of the White House scandal, the
  problem is being blamed on improper scanning,
  logging and archiving of incoming and external
  e-mails.

12
Whistle-blower law

• In the UK, the Public Interest Disclosure Act
  1998
• In the US, Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002
• Whistle-blower Protection Act (for federal
  employees)
• No Fear Act
• Military Whistleblower Protection Act
• I was unable to locate any laws strictly
  pertaining to computer whistle-blowers at this
  time

13
Famous Whistle-blowers

• Cynthia Cooper (WorldCom) and Sherron Watkins
  (Enron) both exposed corporate financial scandals
• Coleen Rowley (FBI) who outlined the agencys
  slow action prior to 9-11 attacks
• Joseph Darby (MP) who in 2004 alerted the U.S.
  military command of prisoner abuse in Abu Ahraib,
  Iraq

14
In closing..

• A whistle-blowing is exposure of fraud or abuse
  by someone with in the organization
• Computer forensics is now being used to blow the
  whistle on fraud (corporate fraud specifically)
• There are 2 classifications
• Internal
• External
• Whistle-blowers are often ostracized,
  discriminated against or fired.
• Laws have been enacted to protected those who
  blow the whistle.

15
(No Transcript)
16
For more information

• You can view the following websites
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistleblower
• http//onlineethics.org/glossary.html
• http//www.bartleby.com/65/wh/whistlebl.html
• http//www.va.gov/oig/hotline/whistle.htm
• http//www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p
• http//www/recordonline.com/archive/2005/05/18.htm
  
• http//archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/stories