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Comment by packetlost | Hacker News Reader

The university would likely not have scrubbed them from their site if they were merely being deported. There are either espionage concerns or this guy solved prime factorization.

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Scrubbing someone from a website would gather too much attention if they were trying to keep a breakthrough hidden, plus you'd probably havr a dead mans switch for that type of thing.

The latter is tongue in cheek. There are any number of things that could be going on that aren't so fundamental to modern cryptography.

I think both things can be true: this involves espionage and the FBI collected what it needed then "disappeared" them.

I wouldn't discount deportation, but if the FBI is involved it's more likely they would detain them, especially if the charges are espionage. The reality is we don't know what's going on and it would be even weirder if information does not come to light sooner or later.

> Neighbors say the agents announced "FBI, come out!" over a megaphone. A woman came out of the house holding a phone.

Then they are really selling the ruse that they don't know where he is.

TBH I don't think there's anyone to deport in this case anymore

(And prime factorization has been cracked already ;) it's factorization of composite numbers that's a pain)

Ah yeah, I really meant factorization of semiprimes.

The current administration also seems very eager to advertise deportations, so if they're quiet about this one, it's likely something else.

prime target gone real? seriously doubt that

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