A whistleblower lawsuit against Penn State alleges that the Applied Research Lab, which conducts research and development primarily for the U.S. Navy, has not sufficiently protected sensitive government information, according to a report from the Centre Daily Times.
Allegations made by Matthew Decker, who worked as chief information officer for ARL, include that the university intentionally falsified compliance reports and used an unsecure cloud service, the CDT reports.
“Sensitive government research and national security information is at the very least at risk,” according to the lawsuit.
The October 2022 lawsuit was just made public last week. The federal judge who unsealed it found “the government presented no exigent circumstances to warrant keeping the lawsuit shielded from the public,” the CDT reported.
“Penn State is dedicated to compliance and takes its compliance obligations, including, its cybersecurity obligations, under federal government contracts very seriously,” university spokesperson Wyatt DuBois wrote in a statement to the Centre Daily Times. “The university has allocated significant resources to maintain compliance with these and other federal requirements. Penn State has worked and continues to work cooperatively and collaboratively with the government to address any questions.” | 
