Still, the fact remains that whistle-blowers have limited protections. "In these situations, the company has all the power," says Fisher. "They can marshal more resources." Further clouding the picture is that from outside the firm it's often difficult to tell if an employee has purely noble reasons for stepping forward.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 contains a few provisions intended to better shield whistle-blowers: it creates both a private right of action and a source of criminal liability. "It broadens the scope of potential criminal liability for individuals who take action against whistle-blowers," says Gregory Keating, a partner at Boston law firm Choate, Hall & Stewart. Already, though, the White House is pushing for a narrower interpretation of the law, and many insist that the new protections aren't enough.

Fisher, for one, believes professional organizations and trade unions should take up the cause of protecting whistle-blowers. And others argue that companies should encourage those with knowledge of wrongdoing to come forward. "The goal should be to create a mechanism for getting information forward and hearing about problems," says Keating. It just might be a company's best chance to avoid becoming the next big scandal.

Joseph McCafferty is news editor of CFO.

Acts of Conscience

The fates of recent whistle-blowers.

Source: News reports

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