Sorry, I was unclear: they do indeed have their own board of mathematicians, but I was more getting at their stated reasoning matching with general mathematical sentiment (AFAICT), not permission from a particular group. The problem that that open letter is raising is the practice of setting an internal model on these kinds of problems in the first place, not the decision to release them earlier.

Also jeez just noticed their name... that's unfortunate. I guess mathematicians don't make great rhetoricians/politicians/marketers! Someone get a sophist or two over there to help them out STAT