Crypto prof asked to remove NSA-related blog post
Predictable backtrack from Johns Hopkins comes a few hours later.
by Nate Anderson – Sept 9 2013, 4:55pm EST
Matthew Green is a well-known cryptography professor, currently teaching in the computer science department of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Last week, Green authored a long and interesting blog post about the recent revelations that the National Security Agency (NSA) has, among much else, subverted crypto standards. In his words, “The TL;DR [‘too long; didn’t read’ version] is that the NSA has been doing some very bad things.” And Green went on to speculate at some length about what those “bad things” were and what they might mean.
Crypto prof asked to remove NSA-related blog post
Predictable backtrack from Johns Hopkins comes a few hours later.
by Nate Anderson – Sept 9 2013, 4:55pm EST
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Matthew Green is a well-known cryptography professor, currently teaching in the computer science department of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Last week, Green authored a long and interesting blog post about the recent revelations that the National Security Agency (NSA) has, among much else, subverted crypto standards. In his words, “The TL;DR [‘too long; didn’t read’ version] is that the NSA has been doing some very bad things.” And Green went on to speculate at some length about what those “bad things” were and what they might mean.
Today, Green’s academic dean contacted him to ask that “all copies” of the blog post be removed from university servers. Green said that the move was not “my Dean’s fault,” but he did not elaborate. Were cryptology professors at Johns Hopkins not allowed to say, as Green had, things like:
I was totally unprepared for today’s bombshell revelations describing the NSA’s efforts to defeat encryption. Not only does the worst possible hypothetical I discussed appear to be true, but it’s true on a scale I couldn’t even imagine. I’m no longer the crank. I wasn’t even close to cranky enough.
Was basic academic freedom on the line? Had the request even come initially from Johns Hopkins or from outside the school—perhaps someone at the NSA headquarters just up the road from Baltimore?
Matthew Green.
I asked John Hopkins, and spokesman Dennis O’Shea responded with the school’s side of the story:
The university received information this morning that Matthew Green’s blog contained a link or links to classified material and also used the NSA logo. For that reason, we asked Professor Green to remove the Johns Hopkins-hosted mirror site for his blog.
Upon further review, we note that the NSA logo has been removed and that he appears to link to material that has been published in the news media. Interim Dean Andrew Douglas will inform Professor Green that the mirror site may be restored.
