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Shawn Carpenter is an American Navy veteran and whistleblower (previously employed by Sandia National Laboratories) who tracked down a Chinese cyberespionage ring that is code-named Titan Rain by the FBI. He came to national attention when his story was reported on in the September 5, 2005 issue of Time magazine.

Carpenter was an employee of Sandia National Laboratories, investigating security breaches in its networks. However, upon tracking several breaches of Sandia, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Redstone Arsenal, and even NASA, dating back to 2003, Carpenter noticed patterns that began to appear to link the attacks to a single group. He was also impressed by the meticulous, voracious, and incredibly fast manner (sometimes completed in less than 30 minutes) in which the hackers operated. Such observations led him to alert the federal government of his findings.

The Titan Rain hacking operation was first reported in an August 25, 2005 Washington Post article by Bradley Graham, which didn't mention Carpenter. Graham listed anonymous governmental officials as his sources.

After informing his supervisors of the breaches, he was told that his only concern was Sandia computers, and to drop the issue. His employment was later terminated when Carpenter disobeyed his management and communicated the information about the security breaches to the United States Army and the FBI. He was a confidential informant for the FBI for almost half a year before Sandia discovered his actions. Carpenter reportedly felt betrayed by the termination, as he viewed his actions were a service to his country, similar to that of his previous military service.

He sued Sandia National Laboratories for wrongful termination and defamation; a jury awarded him almost $4.7 million in compensatory and punitive damages on February 13, 2007. The jury more than doubled the punitive damages requested by Carpenter attorneys Thad Guyer, Stephani Ayers and Philip Davis. The 13-person New Mexico state district court jury determined that Sandia's handling of Shawn Carpenter's termination was "malicious, willful, reckless, wanton, fraudulent or in bad faith." Juror Ed Dzienis said that, "If they (Sandia) have an interest in protecting us, they certainly didn't show it with the way they handled Shawn." Ms. Alex Scott, the jury forewoman, said jurors were upset by the lack of documentation of the process and by the "reckless behavior on the part of Sandia to not have adequate policies in place for employees about hacking, and the cavalier attitude about national security and global security."

Carpenter's wife, Dr. Jennifer Jacobs, testified at the trial. Dr. Jacobs, a former Sandia scientist, nuclear engineer, West Point graduate, and Army Reserve Major, said Sandia management questioned her loyalty to the company after her husband was fired. Dr. Jacobs left Sandia and was later appointed as a White House Fellow, and was a Director at the National Security Council. In an interview with the Albuquerque Journal, Dr. Jacobs stated, "The point for us all along was this is bad for the country to have contractors like Sandia Corporation behaving this way -- with impunity. And if other citizens don't do this, it's the beginning of the end for our country. That's what we kept coming back to: This is what we have to do, because it's what we expect of others."

Sandia Corporation, the private entity that manages Sandia National Laboratories on behalf of the the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Department of Energy and Federal Government of the United States, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the for-profit Lockheed Martin Corporation.

In an ironic twist, Carpenter testified at trial that he found hundreds of pages of detailed schematics and other sensitive documents labeled, "Lockheed Martin Proprietary Information" and "Export Controlled" regarding the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter stashed on a foreign server in South Korea. He was helping the FBI investigate the stolen Lockheed Martin information along with hundreds of other network breaches at military and United States defense contractors when Sandia officials fired him.

As of March, 2007, Carpenter is employed at NetWitness Corp., a startup headed by Amit Yoran, former director of the National Cyber Security Division within the United States Department of Homeland Security.

• Sandia National Laboratories
• Lockheed Martin Corporation
• Titan Rain
• Timeline of Cox Report controversy
• Cyber-warfare
• Whistleblower
• National Security Whistleblowers Coalition

• The Santa Fe New Mexican (March 28, 2007) article "Judge Upholds $4.3 Million Jury Award to Fired Sandia Lab Analyst"
• ABC News (February 26, 2007) report "Jury Slaps Defense Giant for Neglecting National Security"
• TIME Magazine online (February 14, 2007) article "A Security Analyst Wins Big in Court"
• Federal Computer Weekly (February 26, 2007) article "Intercepts: Chinese Checkers"
• Computerworld (February 14, 2007) article "Security Analyst Wins $4.3M in Suit Against Sandia Labs"
• Computerworld (February 26, 2007) article "Q&A: Reverse Hacker Describes Ordeal"
• Federal Computer Weekly (February 13, 2007) article "Sandia Backhacker Wins $4.3 Million Judgment Against Sandia Labs"
• The Santa Fe New Mexican (February 14, 2007) article "Jury Awards Fired Sandia Analyst $4.3 Million"
• Albuquerque Journal (February 14, 2007) article "Sandia Hacker Gets $4 Million"
• The Register (February 16, 2007 article "Employee Fired For Probing Bad Guys Awarded $4.7M"
• Network World (February 16, 2007) article "High Expectations and Hacking"
• Project on Government Oversight (POGO) (March 1, 2007) article "Cyber-security at Risk"
• Slashdot (February 27, 2007) posting "Reverse Hacker Awarded $4.3 Million"
• TIME Magazine (September 5, 2005 issue) article "The Invasion Of The Chinese Cyberspies (And the Man Who Tried to Stop Them)"
• TIME Magazine online (August 25, 2005) article "Inside the Chinese Hack Attack"
• Washington Post (August 25, 2005) article "Hackers Attack Via Chinese Web Sites"
• Albuquerque Journal (September 15, 2005) "Battle Against Hackers Costs Employee Job"
• Five Magazine (September, 2005) article "Track a Spy, Lose Your Job"
• Searchsecurity.com (September 22, 2005) article "The Case of Shawn Carpenter: A Cautionary Tale"
• Time Magazine (September 23, 2002) article "China's New Game"
• The Straits Times (September 16, 2004) article "Seaports Face Twin Threat of Attack and Cyber Terrorism"
• CNN (August 25, 2005) article "FBI probes for Chinese cyber spies"
• ZDNet (August 29, 2005) "How the undermining of US intelligence continues in cyberspace"
• Computerworld (October 20, 2005) article "Guard Against Titan Rain Hackers"
• National Security Whistleblowers Coalition website
• ZDNet (November 23, 2005) article "Security Experts Lift Lid on Chinese Hack Attacks"
• The Guardian (January 19, 2006) article "Smash and grab, the hi-tech way"
• Arabnews.com (September 14, 2005) article "America Facing a Widespread Crisis of Confidence"
• Breitbart.com (December 12, 2005) article "Hacker attacks in US linked to Chinese military"
• SecurityProNews.com (November 28, 2005) article "Chinese Hackers Attack U.S. Military"
• SFGate.com (January 15, 2006) article "Waging war through the Internet"
• Newsweek (January 16, 2006 issue) article "High-Tech Hunger"
• Taipei Times (January 20, 2006) article "China suspected of using hackers to spy on the UK"
• Techworld (January 25, 2006) article "Chinese Attack Parliment Using Windows Security Hole"
• Government Computer News (August 21, 2006) article "Red Storm Rising"
• Washington Post (July 12, 2006) article "State Department Probes Computer Attacks"
• Washington Post (October 6, 2006) article "Computer Systems Under Attack - Commerce Department Targeted; Hackers Traced to China"
• Washington Times (November 30, 2006) article "Chinese Hackers Prompt Navy Site Closure"
• Federal Computer Weekly (December 1, 2006) article "China a Major Cyberthreat, Commission Warns"
• Federal Computer Weekly (December 4, 2006) article "China is Suspected of Hacking into Navy Site"
• The Strategy Page (December 21, 2006) article "Information Warfare: Another Pentagon Network Penetrated"
• Federal Computer Weekly (February 13, 2007) article "Cyber Officials: Chinese Hackers Attack 'Anything and Everything'"