Las Vegas (NV) – Three MIT students probably won’t be giving their scheduled Defcon speech on getting free subway rides.  The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority – the agency in charge of the Boston T subway – sued the trio for computer fraud and requested a temporary restraining order to prevent them from presenting the talk.

Zack Anderson, RJ Ryan and Alessandro Chiesa are researchers and students at MIT under the instruction of the famous professor Ronald Rivest who helped create the RSA security algorithm.  Their talk, which was scheduled for Sunday, was supposed to demonstrate how the subway’s “CharlieCard” could be hacked into giving free subway rides.  These hacks could conceivably be used on other subways.

According to the talk description, the trio used software radios and FPGAs to circumvent the protection mechanisms and to prove the point, they were going to do a live demo of the hack in action.

We give the nod to Dan Goodin at The Register for getting the scoop on this story.  Anderson told Goodin that the team never intended to release tools for hacking into subway systems and had tried to warn the Transit Authority of vulnerabilities in their system.

Octopus

Aug 09, 2008 05:27     

Well, I wounder how save is the Octopus card in Hong Kong. It is electronic money that we use in Hong Kong.
L.P__ report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +4

oyster card

Aug 09, 2008 08:38     

I hope they find a way to hack London's Oyster card, I'd definitely take the eurostar to London more often :p
JohnnyricoMC report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1

GO MIT!!

Aug 09, 2008 09:09     

I hate the MBTA so much, the subway and commuter lines are over-priced and terribly mismanaged. It's about time someone started giving them a little trouble. I hope they release the hack to the public and the MBTA never makes another dime.
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Re: BostonCyclist

Aug 09, 2008 12:50     

Yeah, that's a good idea. The the expenses of running the T can just be added directly to our tax bills, which is super fair for those of us who live outside Boston and never use the T at all. You don't like the rates? You don't have to ride the T. Get a car, ride your bike, or walk. But if you're going to ride your bike, learn to obey the friggen traffic laws. I can't count the number of times I've almost killed someone in the Cambridge/Boston area because some stupid idiot on a bike decided that red lights don't apply to bicyclists.

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Re:Andrew

Aug 09, 2008 13:40     

lol! Do you know that your tax dollars are *already* hard at work funding the worst and oldest public transit system in the country? That's right, they are funded by the Fed. The rider fares account for less than a QUARTER of their revenue. Do a little research before you post. You obviously have no idea what joke our public transit system is, since you "never use the T at all". And yes, I avoid the T at all costs, and only use it when it is completely necessary. Don't even get me started on cyclists vs. motorists. There's a reason Massachusetts drivers got the nickname "Massholes". Try not to be one of them.

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Re: BostonCyclist

Aug 10, 2008 01:54     

I actually do know something about the T, and I refuse to pay any more for it than I am already forced to. I'm sick of paying for Boston's transit crap. You want your public transit? You pay for it. You want your highway underground? You pay for it. I really don't give a damn how much the transit system sucks; I don't use it. And we Massholes got our nickname from irate hillbillies from New Hampshire who ticket us for driving 45mph on a highway where the speed limit drops to 25mph for no reason - not for the way we treat cyclists. I've got no problem sharing the road, so long as people on bikes are willing to obey the traffic laws. If you run a red light on a bike, and I hit you because I couldn't stop my car in time, I'm sorry, but it's your own damn fault.

Andrew report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +4

Unenforceable?

Aug 10, 2008 17:15     

So how exactly is the judge going to monitor EVERY line, in EVERY blog, every chat, and every webpage, and every email... to make sure those 3 kids don't tell anyone? What if a different student knows about it, also? He's not under any court-order... so he can freely tell ANYONE. Will the 3 innoccent kids get jailed for it instead? Gag-orders are TOTALLY unenforceable, as of 1995.
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