Shawn Carpenter

Shawn R. Carpenter is a cyber security analyst 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.

Early life Carpenter served in the United States Navy for six years. It was also reported that he was a retired Army major.

Titan Rain Initial discovery 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 impressed by the meticulous, voracious, and swift 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 government officials as his sources.

Carpenter terminated by Sandia after refusing to drop issue After informing his supervisors of the breaches, he was told that his only concern should be 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 first to United States Army Cyber Counterintelligence Special Agents. They verified his report and later brought in the FBI. The FBI requested a Senior DAC Counterintelligence agent known in the counterintelligence community by the nickname "Doc" to handle Carpenter and lead the operation on behalf of the FBI. For almost half a year, Carpenter was a confidential informant for the FBI before Sandia discovered his actions. Carpenter reportedly felt betrayed by the termination, as he viewed his actions as a service to his country, similar to his previous military service.

According to Carpenter, during his termination hearing at Sandia, Bruce Held, Sandia's chief of counterintelligence, yelled,"[you're] lucky you have such understanding management... if you worked for me, I would decapitate you! There would at least be blood all over the office!" During the subsequent court case, Held testified that he did use the word "decapitate" and, while he did not recall using the word "blood," would not contest it. He also apologized. According to the story, the judgment had been accumulating 15 percent interest since the verdict in his favor in February 2007. The piece also related that Carpenter continues to work in the national security area for clients in the intelligence community, federal agencies, and the military.