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Massachusetts Sues to Halt Defcon Subway Hacking Talk
According to CNET, "The state of Massachusetts has asked a federal judge for a temporary restraining order preventing three MIT students from giving a presentation on Sunday about hacking smartcards used in the Boston subway system." It'll be interesting to see whether Dutch-style openness or Soviet-style secrecy prevails in Las Vegas. Update: 08/09 20:57 GMT by T : "Too late," says reader Bluey: "Injunction was already granted."
rather then make sure they have a techie in attendance so that they may learn something and find a workaround the issue, Boston's lawyers suggested that burying your head in the sand
Remember, it's Boston: the city that is terrified of Cartoon Network. The city that went $8.6 billion over budget on "The Big Dig" which should have cost $6 billion, and it's a piece of crap. Did you really expect competence from that government?
We are all just people.
An ignorant moderator needs to do some reading.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
If this story should make it to local news outlets around here it will be pretty simple for the MBTA spin this and gain the support of Boston residents. Do a piece of "investigative journalism" that discovers how MIT students are conspiring to hack the CharlieCard system, and that by doing so these filthy nerds are going to end up RAISING YOUR TAXES due to lost revenue. That should wrap things up nicely - bonus points if a way can be found to fit in how the hack might HURT YOUR KIDS. The news story must also include some stock footage of sinister looking students "hacking" on computers, and a threatening graphic of a computer at MIT shooting out "RFID BEAMS" causing a Green Line train to simultaneously detonate and plunge off the Charles River Dam Bridge.
Who needs free speech anyway?
Spammers and pornographers