The rest of the article was so riddled with grammar and spelling errors and basic misuses of language that I gave up on it pretty quickly, so I'd say you're right. Also, one of the panellists used "disingenuous", further suggesting that that is what was meant, but clearly no editors or proofreaders were disturbed in the publication of the article.

Or maybe NSA's HQ in Fort Meade are built on top of the area occupied by an aboriginal tribe which based its culture on strong encryption, and NSA coopted that.

You're correct:

“It sounds disingenuous; it seems that what they mean by strong encryption isn’t near the same as what the rest of us say,” Cohn said.