Managed healthcare defense contractor to pay $11 million over alleged cyber failings

The U.S. Department of Justice reached an $11.2M settlement with Health Net Federal Services and Centene for allegedly misrepresenting compliance with federal cybersecurity requirements while administering Tricare (2015–2018), including failures in timely vulnerability scanning, patch management, and configuration settings. The action, pursued under the False Claims Act and the Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative, follows similar cases against other contractors and grantees (e.g., Guidehouse/Nan McKay, Penn State, Georgia Tech) to enforce cybersecurity obligations protecting sensitive government and servicemember data.