MBTA

That's the dog-sized Bluetooth headset you can buy to go with today's real news item, the new BlackBerry Storm: announced but not released. Until it comes out, though, it's basking in the warm glow of the "meeting and maybe exceeding expectations" judgments coming from the media. In sum, it sounds cool. And Google decides it's high time they made some money on that whole YouTube thing.

BlackBerry Storm 9500 hands-on http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/08/blackberry-storm-9500-hands-on/ http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10059498-1.html

YouTube adds … Read more

This post was updated at 1:45 p.m. PDT with comment from MBTA General Manager Daniel Grabauskas.

BOSTON--The three Massachusetts Institute of Technology students who have been barred by a court order from discussing subway card vulnerabilities are now free to say what they want.

In a ruling certain to be cheered by computer researchers, a federal judge here Tuesday let the 10-day-old gag order expire. U.S. District Judge George O'Toole Jr. refused to grant a preliminary injunction requested by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority that would have blocked the students from talking about their findings until … Read more

After he's done with his security dust up with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, Zack Anderson plans on slightly different work: A company that turns heat from a car's shock absorbers into energy for the car's engine.

Hopefully, a government agency won't take offense to that work, as well.

Anderson is one of three Massachusetts Institute of Technology students who were blocked by the MBTA and a judge's order from making a presentation on vulnerabilities in the T's card-based fare system at the recent Defcon conference in Las Vegas. They're still blocked from … Read more

A new controversy is brewing in the lawsuit pitting three Massachusetts Institute of Technology students against the Massachusetts transit agency: Whether or not their unpublished research notes and other material must be handed over to the state government.

The MIT students are asking a federal judge not to require them to hand over unpublished research notes and other material to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, which obtained a restraining order against a conference presentation earlier this month. They already have turned over their prepared presentation and have prepared a separate security analysis for the agency.

The students filed a motion … Read more

The state of Massachusetts is showing no signs of abandoning its fight to keep a restraining order in place against three MIT students who discovered subway card vulnerabilities. In fact, the state transit agency is escalating its rhetoric.

In a legal brief filed Thursday, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority went so far as to claim that the three "defendants enjoy no protections under the First Amendment."

The document was filed around the same time that U.S. District Judge George O'Toole Jr. held a hearing in the case in his Boston courtroom. O'Toole denied a request … Read more

BOSTON--A federal judge on Thursday let stand a temporary restraining order preventing three Massachusetts Institute of Technology students from discussing or disclosing their research into security vulnerabilities in the payment system for the local subway system.

In a 45-minute hearing here, U.S. District Judge George O'Toole Jr. also granted a request by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to obtain documents from the three students and their MIT professor Ron Rivest, a renowned researcher best known as co-inventor of the RSA public key encryption system commonly used in e-commerce systems.

O'Toole didn't amend or revoke the temporary … Read more

The state of Massachusetts plans to ask a federal judge on Thursday to keep in place a restraining order that prevents three MIT students from publicly discussing vulnerabilities they discovered in subway card security.

U.S. District Judge George O'Toole in Boston is scheduled to hear arguments at 11 a.m. ET on whether to modify or eliminate the temporary restraining order, which attorneys for the students characterize as a prior restraint in violation of decades of First Amendment precedent.

A different judge who was on duty on Saturday gave the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority an order prohibiting the … Read more

Three MIT students are disputing the Massachusetts transit agency's version of the events that led to the state filing a lawsuit last week--and obtaining a restraining order against their talk on subway card security scheduled for Sunday.

The latest dispute originates in comments made by to CNET News by Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority spokesman Joe Pesaturo in in a report published Monday. In his e-mail to us, he said the students "agreed to provide the MBTA with a copy of the presentation" scheduled for the Defcon hacker conference on Sunday but never did.

A response posted Tuesday … Read more

The state of Massachusetts said Monday it is not prepared to abandon its lawsuit against MIT students who uncovered security vulnerabilities in Boston transit cards, even though thousands of copies of their 87-page presentation have been distributed.

A federal judge on Saturday granted the state transit authority's request for a restraining order barring the students' planned presentation at the Defcon conference. It orders them not to disclose any "program, information, software code, or command that would assist another in any material way to circumvent or otherwise attack the security of the Fare Media System."

The MIT students … Read more