Stylometric Scholarship Shaky

From New Scientist via Slashdot: standard techniques of stylometric analysis are "easily fooled" by rank amateurs.

[T]he features that stylometry techniques rely on can be easy to imitate,
say Michael Brennan and Rachel Greenstadt at Drexel University in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. They have shown that people can successfully confuse stylometry
software and hide their identity by imitating the writing style of another
person.

Let's set aside the legal questions the article raises. The reliability of stylometry has consequences for issues in ancient scholarship as well. One example: the question of the development of Plato's metaphysical and ethical thought has been addressed with stylometric techniques by scholars such as C.M. Young. If, for example, we can no longer confidently assert that the Philebus post-dates the Republic, we suddenly have far less evidence with which to understand and interpret the growth of Platonic philosophy.