mbta v. mit students

MIT student defends MBTA hacking research

After he's done with his security dust up with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, Zack Anderson plans on slightly different work: A company that turns heat from a car's shock absorbers into energy for the car's engine.

Hopefully, a government agency won't take offense to that work, as well.

Anderson is one of three Massachusetts Institute of Technology students who were blocked by the MBTA and a judge's order from making a presentation on vulnerabilities in the T's card-based fare system at the recent Defcon conference in Las Vegas. They're still blocked from … Read more

MIT students fight to keep card hacking material confidential

A new controversy is brewing in the lawsuit pitting three Massachusetts Institute of Technology students against the Massachusetts transit agency: Whether or not their unpublished research notes and other material must be handed over to the state government.

The MIT students are asking a federal judge not to require them to hand over unpublished research notes and other material to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, which obtained a restraining order against a conference presentation earlier this month. They already have turned over their prepared presentation and have prepared a separate security analysis for the agency.

The students filed a motion … Read more

Massachusetts: MIT students deserve 'no First Amendment protection'

The state of Massachusetts is showing no signs of abandoning its fight to keep a restraining order in place against three MIT students who discovered subway card vulnerabilities. In fact, the state transit agency is escalating its rhetoric.

In a legal brief filed Thursday, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority went so far as to claim that the three "defendants enjoy no protections under the First Amendment."

The document was filed around the same time that U.S. District Judge George O'Toole Jr. held a hearing in the case in his Boston courtroom. O'Toole denied a request … Read more

Judge leaves gag order intact on subway card-hacking students

BOSTON--A federal judge on Thursday let stand a temporary restraining order preventing three Massachusetts Institute of Technology students from discussing or disclosing their research into security vulnerabilities in the payment system for the local subway system.

In a 45-minute hearing here, U.S. District Judge George O'Toole Jr. also granted a request by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to obtain documents from the three students and their MIT professor Ron Rivest, a renowned researcher best known as co-inventor of the RSA public key encryption system commonly used in e-commerce systems.

O'Toole didn't amend or revoke the temporary … Read more

Transit agency wants MIT students to stay gagged

The state of Massachusetts plans to ask a federal judge on Thursday to keep in place a restraining order that prevents three MIT students from publicly discussing vulnerabilities they discovered in subway card security.

U.S. District Judge George O'Toole in Boston is scheduled to hear arguments at 11 a.m. ET on whether to modify or eliminate the temporary restraining order, which attorneys for the students characterize as a prior restraint in violation of decades of First Amendment precedent.

A different judge who was on duty on Saturday gave the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority an order prohibiting the … Read more

MIT students: Mass. agency 'misrepresents' what led to lawsuit

Three MIT students are disputing the Massachusetts transit agency's version of the events that led to the state filing a lawsuit last week--and obtaining a restraining order against their talk on subway card security scheduled for Sunday.

The latest dispute originates in comments made by to CNET News by Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority spokesman Joe Pesaturo in in a report published Monday. In his e-mail to us, he said the students "agreed to provide the MBTA with a copy of the presentation" scheduled for the Defcon hacker conference on Sunday but never did.

A response posted Tuesday … Read more

Massachusetts: We want to meet with MIT subway-hacking students

The state of Massachusetts said Monday it is not prepared to abandon its lawsuit against MIT students who uncovered security vulnerabilities in Boston transit cards, even though thousands of copies of their 87-page presentation have been distributed.

A federal judge on Saturday granted the state transit authority's request for a restraining order barring the students' planned presentation at the Defcon conference. It orders them not to disclose any "program, information, software code, or command that would assist another in any material way to circumvent or otherwise attack the security of the Fare Media System."

The MIT students … Read more

Judge orders halt to Defcon speech on subway card hacking

LAS VEGAS--A federal judge on Saturday granted the Massachusetts transit authority's request for an injunction preventing three MIT students from giving a presentation about hacking smartcards used in the Boston subway system.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is representing the students, anticipates appealing the ruling, said EFF senior staff attorney Kurt Opsahl.

The undergraduate students had been scheduled to give a presentation Sunday afternoon at the Defcon hacker conference here that they had said would describe "several attacks to completely break the CharlieCard," an RFID card that the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority uses on the Boston T … Read more