p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- Massachusetts Institute of Technology students Zack Anderson, R.J. Ryan and Alessandro Chiesa had planned on outlining faults in the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority’s Charlie Card and Charlie Ticket Fare systems when, said p2pnet last Thurday, going on, “The trio were all set to go into detail at Defcon 16.

“Then Massachusetts officialdom stepped in and their presentation was halted.”

However, the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) asked to have the gag order, which it said was unconstitutional, removed.

Now the restrictions have been lifted, says the EFF.

A federal judge found the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Agency (MBTA) had no likelihood of success on the merits of its claim under the federal computer intrusion law and denied its demand for a five-month injunction, says the foundation, going on:

“In papers filed yesterday, the MBTA acknowledged for the first time that their Charlie Ticket system had vulnerabilities and estimated that it would take five months to fix.

“Tuesday’s ruling lifts the restriction preventing the student researchers from talking about their findings regarding the security vulnerabilities of Boston’s Charlie Card and Charlie Ticket - a project that earned them an ‘A’ from renowned computer scientist and MIT professor Dr Ron Rivest.”

Says the EFF »»»

 The students met with the MBTA about a week before the conference and voluntarily provided a confidential vulnerability report to the transit agency. However, the MBTA subsequently sued the students and MIT in United States District Court in Massachusetts less than 48 hours before the scheduled presentation, without providing any advance notice to the students.

The lawsuit claimed that the students’ planned presentation would violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) by enabling others to defraud the MBTA of transit fares.

A different federal judge, meeting in a special Saturday session, ordered the trio not to disclose for ten days any information that could be used by others to get free subway rides.

However, the fact the gag order has been lifted doesn’t mean students are out of the woods yet.

The MBTA’s litigation continues, says the EFFm adding:

“The students have already voluntarily provided a 30-page security analysis to the MBTA and have offered to meet with the MBTA and walk the transit agency through the security vulnerability and the students’ suggestions for improvement.”

Meanwhile, Wikileaks is still carrying Anatomy of a Subway Hack 2008.

. .Stumble It!

p2pnet - MIT subway hack presentation online, August 14, 2008
EFF - Judge Lifts Unconstitutional Gag Order Against MIT Students, August 19, 2008

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 at 6:59 am and is filed under Freedom, P2P. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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