The hack of the Virginia Prescription Monitoring Program may have serious consequences for contractor Northrop Grumman. The company had received a 10-year $2.3 billion state contract to upgrade the state’s computer system.
According to stories in the Washington Post and Daily Press, the state has had issues with Northrop Grumman over the past few years involving missed deadlines, inadequate maintenance of inventory, and poor service. The state is withholding more than $6 million from the company because of the recent problems, and was already withholding $6 million.
And now some legislators are wondering aloud whether the security breach could serve as grounds to either terminate or renegotiate the contract altogether. Certainly the state has still not recovered fully from the breach as some doctors report problems accessing the required database.
So… could the breach be an excuse or legal justification for the state to terminate or renegotiate a very lucrative contract? If so, this could turn out to be a very costly breach for Northrop Grumman.