UK Banks Attempt To Censor Academic Publication 162
An anonymous reader writes "Representatives of the UK banking industry have sent a take-down notice (PDF link) to Cambridge University, demanding that they censor a student's webpage as well as his masters thesis (PDF). The banks' objection is that the information contained in the report might be used to exploit a vulnerability in the Chip and PIN system, used throughout Europe and Canada for credit and debit card payments. The system was revealed to be fundamentally flawed earlier this year, as it allowed criminals to use a stolen card with any PIN. Cambridge University has resisted the demands and has sent a response to the bankers explaining why they will keep the page online."
Re:Good. (Score:5, Funny)
Ideally this streisand effect multiplier will force them to change, and that will be good, but how is it in this day and age that large institutions are still trying to suppress news stories? It implies that not only did they totally miss one of the big lessons of wikileaks, they didn't see "Serenity" either ("you can't stop the signal") and that's just sad.
What was going on in the board room or exec room when that decision was made? "Well, gee, this is bad. Our strategy guy and media guy are both out on holidays, but I think our action is pretty clear: murder the guy. Oh, we don't have an assassin on retainer? Well, lets get on that and in the meantime we'll just try to keep it from press. That will probably work, no harm there."
Nice... (Score:5, Funny)
by linking to the pdf of the thesis, Slashdot is effectively publishing said thesis D: