Massacussetts transit agency tries to close the barn door on a hack

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>]

http://venturebeat.com/2008/08/09/transit-agency-tries-to-close-the-barn-doo
r-on-a-hack/


Massacussetts transit agency tries to close the barn door on a hack


Dean Takahashi <http://venturebeat.com/author/dean-takahashi/>  | August
9th, 2008 

The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority is a little slow at the draw. It
filed a lawsuit last night to stop three MIT students from disclosing flaws
in the agency's electronic payment systems.

A spokeswoman for Defcon <http://www.defcon.org>  confirmed that the suit
was filed in federal court last night and the talk had been withdrawn. But
she also said that the paper for the talk had already been given out on CDs
distributed to thousands of hackers attending the conference. The suit is
like closing the barn door after the jail break.

"It's not like it's going to stop the information from getting out," she
said.

The three speakers are Zack Anderson, 21, RJ Ryan, 22 and Alessandro Chiesa,
20. Their paper said that it was trivial to add hundreds of dollars to
CharlieCard fare cards that are distributed with magnetic strips or radio
frequency identification tags. The MBTA serves about 1.4 million riders a
day. The MBTA apparently engaged in negotiations with MIT during the week
before filing the suit Friday. In any case, it was late.

 

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