MIT hacker: I tried to help MBTA

[flashl]

By O’Ryan Johnson
Boston Herald
Monday, August 11, 2008

One of the MIT computer hackers who uncovered flaws in the CharlieCard system that would let passengers swipe free rides said he and his classmates offered to show T officials how to fix the problem, but instead were hauled into court and barred from speaking about their work.

“We made first contact,” said Zack Anderson, 21, a Los Angeles native, who majors in electronic engineering and computer science. “We wanted to let them know what we found and we wanted to tell them some ideas we had on how they could fix that system ... We felt like the issue was resolved. That was verbally affirmed in a Monday meeting. Then Friday we find out there’s a federal lawsuit against us.”

On Saturday morning, federal Judge Douglas Woodlock granted the MBTA a restraining order that blocked Anderson and classmates R.J. Ryan and Alessandro Chiesa from presenting their A-graded paper at DEFCON 16, an annual hackers conference in Las Vegas.

Civil libertarians and the students’ lawyers quickly assailed the order as a blatant attack on free speech.

[billyoc]

1. Yeah, they'll be ROFL'ing over that one up in the Cambridge Jail.

:rofl: