If your company holds a Department of Defense contract with DFARS 252.204-7012 in it, you've likely posted a NIST SP 800-171 self-assessment score in SPRS (the Supplier Performance Risk System). It's easy to treat that number as paperwork. It isn't. It's a statement you make to the government, and DoD relies on it.

What happened

On September 1, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Honeywell Aerospace Inc. agreed to pay $2,042,518 to settle allegations under the False Claims Act.

DOJ alleged that from April 2020 through December 2023, a business unit of Honeywell International submitted false claims for payment by not meeting the cybersecurity requirements in NIST SP 800-171 on one of its networks, as the contract and regulation required.

The case began as a whistleblower lawsuit filed by a former Honeywell employee, who will receive $375,823 as her share.…