Results tagged “defcon”

Wired updates us on the MIT Charlie card hacking situation. A restraining order was issued and the students' talk at Defcon was canceled. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which represented the students, criticized the ruling as limiting free speech. Ironically, the students' vulnerability assessment report that the MBTA filed with its lawsuit contains even more compromising information than the students planned to present in their talk. So, basically, by filing a lawsuit, the T raised more awareness about its vulnerabilities than they would have by simply ignoring the Defcon speech, and also offered up the details on its systems' weaknesses for anyone to download and exploit. WTG, MBTA!

Universal Hub points out that three MIT students who hacked the Charlie Card system are scheduled to give a presentation at Defcon tomorrow about how they went about it. The T, while not interested in its hearing about security problems when the students first brought them to the authority, has now filed a lawsuit designed to stop the MIT students from presenting their findings at Defcon. The students insist they will not reveal information specifically targeted at hacking the CharlieCard, and the Register points out that Charlie-style RFID cards were hacked a while ago, anyway. We think the T needlessly exacerbated this situation with a lawsuit, and wouldn't be surprised if many MIT students somehow start riding for free.