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With Lawsuit Settled, Hackers Working With MBTA

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the how-it-should-be dept.

narramissic writes "The three MIT students who were sued earlier this year by the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority for planning to show at Defcon how they had had reverse engineered the magnetic stripe tickets and smartcards said Monday that they are now working to make the Boston transit system more secure. 'I'm really glad to have it behind me. I think this is really what should have happened from the start,' said Zack Anderson, one of the students sued by the MBTA."

3 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. What's this? by fewnorms · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Common sense finally prevailing? Has hell frozen over?
    On one hand I'm surprised that the MBTA has decided to work with these guys to make their system more secure, on the other hand I wish this would happen more often instead of the mindless suing that government organizations and other companies seem so fond of.

    --
    Veni, Vidi, Velcro!
    1. Re:What's this? by kimvette · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Government officials have long since forgotten that they are, according to the Constitution, answerable to us, not vice versa. Having said that I am glad things went the way of the students, and it should ALWAYS be the case. I would not consider those students who pointed out a security issue to be evildoers who need punishment. They are citizens or legal residents who are afforded the right to free speech, which includes alerting folks of poor designs implemented by government agencies.

      --
      The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
  2. It's hush money by NoKaOi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Okay, so fundamentally, the MBTA's goal is to prevent the kids from making their knowledge public. The kids' goal is probably to make a name for themselves, and maybe do something cool by defeating the MBTA's security.

    The judge threw out the gag ording, which I assume means the kids can legally make the knowledge public (even if they'll be sued later). By "hiring" the kids to make recommendations on their security, everyone saves a bunch of legal costs, the MBTA keeps the kids' from going public with the exploits, and the kids still get to make a name for themselves, and maybe make a few dollars. Everybody wins. That doesn't mean the MBTA actually cares about anything the kids have to say in their recommendations.