Universities And Colleges Should Beware Of Recent DOJ Cybersecurity Enforcement

As the DOJ's Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative gains steam, civil prosecutors and whistleblowers have set their sights on universities and colleges with a close eye on cybersecurity compliance.

As a refresher, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced the launch of the DOJ's Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative in October 2021. Utilizing the False Claims Act (FCA)¹ as a substantive predicate, the Initiative aims to target government contractors and grant recipients that (1) knowingly misrepresent their cybersecurity practices or protocols, (2) knowingly violate monitoring or reporting obligations or (3) knowingly provide deficient cybersecurity products or services.² Higher education institutions – commonly recipients of federal research grants and government contracts – now face greater scrutiny to ensure compliance with quickly evolving cybersecurity obligations that go well beyond cyber incident disclosure. With significant enforcement activity accelerating earlier this