Georgia

Lawsuit: Georgia Tech Didn’t Enforce Cybersecurity Rules

Published

2 years ago

August 23, 2024

Lawsuit: Georgia Tech Didn’t Enforce Cybersecurity Rules

(TNS) — The federal government is alleging Georgia Tech and its research arm didn’t follow enforcement of cybersecurity rules for U.S. Department of Defense contracts.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia filed a 99-page “complaint-in-intervention” Thursday in U.S. District Court in Atlanta. The filing lays out the reasons the federal government joined a whistleblower lawsuit filed in 2022 by one former employee and one current employee of Georgia Tech’s cybersecurity team.

The complaint alleges Georgia Tech, through its Georgia Tech Research Corp., entered numerous contracts over the years and that, according to a former employee, “there was, for years, ‘no enforcement’ of cybersecurity regulations.”

The filing alleges that the issue stemmed from Georgia Tech’s desire to accommodate researchers who found the cybersecurity rules to be “burdensome” and that school administrators gave into researcher demands because of the money generated from government contracts.

“Put simply, according to these former employees, the researchers who brought in significant government contracting money were considered the equivalent of ‘star quarterbacks’ and thus could use their ‘power on campus’ to push back against compliance with federal cybersecurity rules,” the complaint states.

Georgia Tech said it is “extremely disappointed by the Department of Justice’s filing, which misrepresents Georgia Tech’s culture of innovation and integrity.”

“Their complaint is entirely off base, and we will vigorously dispute it in court,” the Atlanta school said, in a Thursday statement.

Georgia Tech also said: “This case has nothing to do with confidential information or protected government secrets. The government told Georgia Tech that it was conducting research that did not require cybersecurity restrictions, and the government itself publicized Georgia Tech’s groundbreaking research findings. In fact, in this case, there was no breach of information, and no data leaked.”

The case was initially brought more than two years ago by Christopher Craig, identified in Thursday’s court filing as an enterprise security architect who has worked at Georgia Tech since 2003. The other whistleblower plaintiff, Kyle Koza, worked at Georgia Tech from 2011 to 2022, the complaint states.

The complaint asks for civil penalties, damages and other costs.

“Cybersecurity compliance by government contractors is critical in safeguarding U.S. information and systems against threats posed by malicious actors,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan, in a written statement. “For this reason, we expect contractors to abide by cybersecurity requirements in their contracts and grants, regardless of the size or type of the organization or the number of contracts involved.”

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Georgia

Georgia’s Iranian community reacts to death of Ayatollah Khamenei

Published

11 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Georgia’s Iranian community reacts to death of Ayatollah Khamenei

ATLANTA – As conflict intensifies between the United States, Israel and Iran, reactions are pouring in across the Atlanta metro area after President Donald Trump confirmed the death of Iran’s supreme leader.

The president confirmed on Truth Social that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in a joint strike led by the U.S. and Israel.

What they’re saying:

“I have been waiting to hear this news for the last 20 years,” said Dr. Sasan Tavassoli, an Atlanta-based pastor born in Iran.

“Ayatollah Khamenei has been responsible for the killing of tens of thousands of Iranians over the last three decades. He has been a very evil dictator and a very oppressive tyrant.”

Other local Iranians, like Shohreh Mir, expressed a long-standing desire for internal change rather than outside intervention.

“This was an imposed war,” Mir said. “We still very much would like for Iranian people to change the regime by themselves.”

What’s next:

Tavassoli said the Ayatollah’s death now creates a new issue.

“Ayatollah Khamenei never invested in raising a succession after himself,” he said, “so the crisis of the Iranian revolution and the Iranian regime is there is no legitimate successor.”

While the long-term duration of the conflict remains unknown, Iran has already begun launching retaliatory strikes following the attack.

“This is a huge development for day one, but the war is not over,” Tavassoli noted. “There are still many ways that things can become even more bloody and destructive in the coming days and weeks.”

The Source: Information in this article came from FOX 5’s Rey Llerena speaking with Iranian Americans across Georgia.

IranDonald J. TrumpNewsPolitics

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Georgia

Body found near Georgia Power dam on Radium Springs Road in Albany

Published

24 hours ago

February 28, 2026

Press Room

Body found near Georgia Power dam on Radium Springs Road in Albany

ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) – A person was found dead in the 5200 block of Radium Springs Road on Saturday morning, according to Dougherty County Coroner Michael Fowler.

Body recovered in early morning water rescue call(WALB NEWS 10)

Fowler said the call came in as a water rescue. The body was recovered early Saturday, Feb. 28.

The coroner confirmed the person found was male. His identity and age remain unknown.

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To stay up to date on all the latest news as it develops, follow WALB on Facebook and X (Twitter). For more South Georgia news, download the WALB News app from the Apple Store or Google Play.

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Georgia

Ga. lawmakers propose changes to state’s early voting process

Published

1 day ago

February 28, 2026

Press Room

Ga. lawmakers propose changes to state’s early voting process

ATLANTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – State legislators are considering more changes to Georgia’s voting law, proposing a new bill that would alter the way early voters cast ballots.

State Sen. Greg Dolezal, a Republican from Cumming, introduced SB 568 this week. The proposal would assign early voters to one precinct in their county. Currently, voters can cast early votes at any precinct in their county.

It would also move early voting to a hand-marked paper ballot system, where voters use a pen to mark their selections, instead of the currently used touchscreen system.

“So that we would not have to print so many permutations at the paper ballots, we would assign voters to an early voting location,” said Dolezal. “Most people are going to vote to the at the early voting location closest to their home anyway.”

The bill was immediately met with backlash from democrats as a barrier to the vote.

“I have no idea how voting on a piece of paper, marking it down with your pencil in any way suppresses the vote,” said Dolezal. “For most counties out of, you know, 140 call it out of 159, they just have one location.”

Dolezal’s proposal would also require local clerks to publicly post their entire voting rolls ahead of elections.

“Making public every single voter who is qualified to vote is to some extent, a little bit of an invasion of privacy for each individual voter,” said state Sen. Sonya Halpern (D-Atlanta). “We need to have trust in our election officials to run those elections.”

It’s the latest change the legislature has proposed to Georgia’s voting system.

“You have dirty, dirty voting rolls, you’re going to have dirty elections,” Dolezal said.

The bill would also shift responsibility for voter challenges from the counties to the State Elections Board. In addition, it would also move the threshold for an automatic recount in the state from a 1.5% margin to 2%.

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