Académique Documents
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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
Generally..
The misconduct is a
violation of law, rule, regulation and/or a direct threat to public interest
Reactions to whistle-blowers:
They are ostracized by their co-workers Discriminated against by future potential
employers Fired from their organizations
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
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
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
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
discriminated against or fired. Laws have been enacted to protected those who blow the whistle.