IU faculty protests firing of professor in FBI probe

(WXIN/WTTV): Its like XiaoFeng Wang never existed during his 21 years at Indiana University.




In conjunction with FBI raids at homes Wang shares in Bloomington and Carmel with his wife, IU Library software engineer Nianli Ma, all traces of the noted cybersecurity expert have been scrubbed from the university's website.




His wife's, too.




The FBI and IU won't comment on the federal investigators' interest in the professor who is the director of the Center for Security and Privacy in Informatics, Computing and Engineering (SPICE).




According to his bio still discoverable elsewhere online, Wang has garnered $23 million in grants during his two decades at IU and is widely honored and published nationally.




"He's right there on the cutting edge of this kind of research as far as data privacy, cybersecurity and that kind of thing, a lot of dollars in federal research grants," observed Doug Kouns, president of Veracity IIR, a security consultancy firm. "Probably involved in some national security type projects which obviously brings to concern the espionage factor. Is this information, this research that's going on here at IU or in Indiana, making its way toward somebody who shouldn't have it?"




While agents would have been serving search warrants most likely signed by the U.S. District Court of Southern Indiana, there is no indication of the allegations of the investigation.




"Insider risk is a significant concern for organizations of all sizes," said Cory Rivers of Reveal Risk, a cybersecurity firm. "Individuals with authorized access to systems, to data, can pose a serious threat whether intentional or unintentional. When you look at the intentional side of insider risk, things like data theft, sabotage, disgruntled employee, corporate espionage, nation state espionage, fraud are a couple things that kind of come to mind when you think of when you're getting authorities involved in insider risk cases."




Rivers said the presence of federal investigators would seem to indicate Wang is being targeted for more than a simple internal IU matter.




"For them to get the authorities involved, there's probably something going on," Rivers said.




In 2024, Wang collected salaries totaling $387,000 from the IU and Ivy Tech systems while his wife was paid $85,000.




FOX59/CBS4 has been unsuccessful in attempts to reach Wang, Ma or an Indianapolis criminal attorney said to represent them.




When asked about Wang's removal from the IU website or the status of his position at the university, a spokesperson declined comment.




" It's certainly concerning. I've not seen anything like this," said Kouns. "Taking down his bio and his phone number and his email address, I've never anything like that myself.




"We don't know where he's at," said the former FBI agent. "It does seem very odd and piques your curiosity about what may be going on here."




The Bloomington chapter of the American Association of University Professors published a letter sent to IU Provost Rahul Shrivastav protesting that Wang's tenure, "has been summarily terminated," and calling on the University to respect his rights and its own protocols and provide a hearing before the Faculty Board of Review.




"Information in a case like this is going to be like pulling teeth," said Kouns.




Attached is the AAUP letter protesting Wang's firing:




AAUP_March_31_Letter_ShrivastavDownload


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