Students Back on Track after MBTA Tries to Block Their Work
“It was not until just this morning that the MBTA admitted what the students were doing isn’t a prank. If there’s ever been a shoot-the-messenger case, I guess this is it.” –Cindy Cohn, legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the organization representing the students.
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“We’ve always maintained that there are certain details that we didn’t want to disclose, because we don’t want people defrauding the MBTA,” he said yesterday afternoon. “We’re definitely going to stay true to that. We’ve always wanted to settle this amicably. My God, we never wanted any of this.” –Zack Anderson, one of the students involved in the project
I’ve been paying attention to the situation where the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority sued some MIT students to prevent them from releasing the results of their research into the T’s ticketing system and some of its security flaws. Today’s Boston Globe’s article recapping the T’s lawsuit and the student’s research also carries the news that a judge lifted the gag order another one put in place. The case offers a mix of an institution trying to protect its computer vulnerabilities while repressing the free speech of others based on various laws.
