Cybersecurity professor faced China’s fundraising investigation before disappearing, sources say
Jason Covert, one of the lawyers representing Xiaofeng Wang and his wife Nianli Ma, is a library systems analyst whose employee profiles were also removed by Indiana University, saying Wang and MA are both “safe” and neither have been arrested. Their legal team is currently unaware of the pending criminal charges against them, and while the couple’s lawyers are looking at the search warrant from the Department of Justice, Covert says they have not established any possible causes that they may not have received a copy of the affidavit.
Wang is considered among top researchers in the areas of privacy, data security and biometric privacy, and his sudden loss of failure has been a shock to many of his academic peers. Wang joined IU in 2004 and is the leading principal investigator at the interdisciplinary center of distributed confidential computing, which he founded almost together in 2022. $3 million Grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Since then, deleted bio On the IU website. As part of the NSF funding and other applications for US federal research grants, Wang said. It is necessary to disclose Other grants he has already received or currently pending.
March 28th, FBI searched Two home addresses associated with the king. On the same day, IU reportedly finished his King’s work via email sent by Provost Rahul Srivastav. Daily Students in Indiana. The email also said it was understood that Wang had recently accepted his position as a university in Singapore.
According to the statement, Wang is scheduled to begin at the unnamed University of Singapore on June 1, 2025, and said he requested leave from Indiana University in early March. However, IU responded by “putting him on administrative leave, removing IU’s homepage and disabling IU’s email address.”
King’s new job offers “will be irrelevant in any case, as it’s for the next grade and doesn’t justify firing him,” says Tanford. Terminating his employment via email was a violation of University PolicyTanford prohibits laying off tenured professors without a reason if requested by staff, and claims that 10 days of notice and hearing before the faculty review board. “Faculty members are deeply concerned. If the administration can fire a lifetime professor without legitimate procedures and in violation of policies approved by the councillors, then none of us are safe,” he says.
In response to comment, an IU spokesman declined to answer detailed questions from the wire about previous communications between the university and the king and the school’s decision to fire him.
“Indiana University has recently recognized a federal investigation into Indiana University faculty,” university spokesman Mark Bord told Wired via email. “At the directions of the FBI, Indiana University will not make public comments regarding this investigation. In accordance with Indiana University’s practices, Indiana University will not also make public comments regarding this individual’s status.”