This front-page article from

today’s Washington Post is worth reading. Reporter Laura Blumenfeld came across

a dissertation being written by a grad student at George Mason University (which

is right outside of Washington). The dissertation has, in her words, “mapped

every business and industrial sector in the American economy, layering on top

the fiber-optic network that connects them.” You can see how this is risky

stuff, especially in the post 9/11 world.

Blumenfeld’s interviewees do a good job of raising the important questions:

Should his dissertation be classified? (Former cyberterror czar Richard Clarke

thinks so.) Should the source material have been de-classified in the first

place? The student, Sean Gorman, is concerned–and rightfully so–about losing

his work, but even he recognizes the importance of security. According to the

article, he responded to an offer to sell him maps of the nation’s electric

power grids with a terse note: “With friends like you, we don’t need any enemies

in the world.” He seems to get it. Sadly, some others do not. John Young, a

New York architect with a Web site which has aerial views of various military

facilities and Mapquest directions, says that having such a site is “a great

thrill.” He says that the dissertation “should be published,” even if banned.

“We like defying authority as a matter of principle.”