When the FBI attacks a house, the cybersecurity professor mysteriously disappears
A well-known computer scientist who has published academic papers on encryption, privacy and cybersecurity for 20 years, has raided his home by the FBI after his professor profile, email account and phone number were deleted by his employer, Indiana University. No one knows the reason.
Xiaofeng Wang has a long list of prestigious titles. He was the Associate Dean of Research at Indiana University. La Discure in Informatics, Computing and EngineeringFellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and a tenured professor at the American Association for Progress in Science and Indiana University in Bloomington. According to his employer, he has been the lead investigator for research projects totaling nearly $23 million over 21 years.
He also co-authors academic papers on a variety of research areas, including encryption, system security, and data privacy, including encryption, system security, and protection of human genomic data. I personally spoke to him three times for an article here, hereand here.
“This is by no means normal.”
In recent weeks, Wang’s email account, phone number, and Profile page At Luddy School, it was quietly erased by his employer. At the same time, Indiana University also deleted the profile for his wife, nianli mawas listed as a lead systems analyst and programmer in the university’s library technology department.
As reported by Bloomington And later Herald Times In Bloomington, a small fleet of unmarked cars driven by government agents who came down to their homes in Bloomington, Massachusetts on Friday. They spent most of the day coming and going to the house and occasionally moving boxes out of the car. Meanwhile, TV station WTHR It has been reported The second home, owned by Wang and Massachusetts, was also searched in Carmel, Indiana. The station said both the resident and the resident’s attorney were on the scene during at least part of the search.
Attempts to find King and MA have so far failed. An Indiana University spokesman did not answer email questions asking whether the couple is still employed by the university or why their profile page, email address and phone number were deleted. The spokesman provided contact information to the spokeswoman at the FBI field office in Indianapolis. In the email, the spokeswoman wrote: “The FBI conducted a court approved law enforcement at its Bloomington and Carmel homes on Friday. There are no further comments at this time.”
A federal court docket search found no documents related to searching for King, Massachusetts, or its home. An FBI spokeswoman did not answer questions asking when the U.S. District Court issued the warrant and whether Wang or MA is in custody by authorities. A Department of Justice representative did not reply to emails seeking the same information. Emails sent to the email address of individuals belonging to Wang were not answered at the time this post was published. Their resident status (e.g., US citizens and green card holders) is currently unknown.
fellow researchers took him to social media over the weekend to register concerns about the series of events.
“This is not common in any way,” says Matthew Green, a professor specializing in cryptography at Johns Hopkins University. I wrote it At Mastodon. he continuation: “Has anyone been in touch? I heard he has been missing for two weeks and his students can’t reach him.