The program dictates the punishment, not the law. The program can be secret and have no impact on the ability of the person to follow the law which remains public.
That's the equivalent of stolen valor, which is a separate issue of fabricating past accomplishments. The commentator did not claim they were a current CIA officer.
>I can say that Carnegie Mellon is definitely ranked nationally a Top 10 university in computer engineering and/or computer science.
And it is just one of the numerous examples of non-coastal universities who run quality undergraduate programs producing graduates with the tech skills mentioned by the article.