A Cambridge don has reacted with refreshing bluntness to a UK banking association’s demand for the censorship of a PhD thesis demonstrating how easily their point of sale system can be compromised,
Professor Anderson said her request “showed a misconception of what universities are and how we work… You seem to think that we might censor a student’s thesis – which is lawful and already in the public domain – simply because a powerful interest group finds it inconvenient,” he said.
“> Cambridge is the university of Erasmus, of Newton and of Darwin> . Censoring writings that offend the powerful is offensive to our deepest values.”
He added: “I have authorised the thesis to be issued as a computer laboratory technical report. This will make it easier for people to find and to cite, and will ensure that its presence on our website is permanent.” He rejected her allegation that the student was encouraging fraud by giving details of a blueprint for a device which is alleged to exploit a loophole in the security of chip-and-pin technology.
