The Justice Department on Wednesday announced that a former senior manager at a government contractor has been charged over lying about a product’s compliance with Department of Defense requirements.
The defendant, Danielle Hillmer, 53, of Chantilly, Virginia, allegedly concealed the fact that her employer’s cloud platform did not implement required security controls.
According to the indictment, between March 2020 and November 2021, Hillmer attempted to influence and obstruct product audits by concealing security issues and instructing others to do the same.
Hillmer allegedly hid the fact that her employer’s platform did not comply with the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) and the Department of Defense’s Risk Management Framework.
The indictment alleges that she falsely represented that the platform had implemented the required access controls, logging, monitoring, and other security capabilities.
Furthermore, Hillmer allegedly submitted documents that contained materially false information to obtain and maintain government contracts.
The alleged activity occurred while Hillmer was employed at Accenture and managed its cloud services products.
The charges appear to align with the activity Accenture mentioned in an SEC filing in 2023, after Accenture Federal Services (AFS) made a voluntary disclosure to the US government.
The disclosure, it said, resulted in an investigation “concerning whether one or more employees provided inaccurate submissions to an assessor who was evaluating on behalf of the US government an AFS service offering and whether the service offering fully implemented required federal security controls.”
Responding to a SecurityWeek inquiry, an Accenture spokesperson said:
“As previously disclosed in our public filings, we proactively brought this matter to the government’s attention following an internal review. We have cooperated extensively with the government’s investigation and continue to do so. We remain dedicated to operating with the highest ethical standards as we serve all our clients, including the federal government.”
As part of the cybersecurity fraud scheme, Hillmer was charged with wire fraud, major government fraud, and obstruction of a federal audit. If found guilty, she faces decades in prison.
*Updated with statement from Accenture.
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