Cisco Systems has reached an $8.6 million settlement to resolve allegations that it knowingly sold video surveillance software with critical security vulnerabilities to federal, state, and local government agencies, leaving government systems vulnerable to hackers.

The outcome is precedent-setting, believed to be the “first cyber-security whistleblower case of its kind ever successfully litigated under the False Claims Act,” according to the attorneys who represented the whistleblower in the case.

Jaclyn Jaeger is a freelance contributor to Compliance Week after working for the company for 15 years. She writes on a wide variety of topics, including ethics and compliance, risk management, legal,...