MIT students barred from exposing MBTA security flaws

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has obtained a temporary restraining order barring three MIT students from giving a talk today about what they claim are the security vulnerabilities of the MBTA’s CharlieCard.

The 10-day injunction prohibits undergraduates Zack Anderson, R.J. Ryan and Allessandro Chiesa from presenting their findings in Las Vegas at the DEFCON 16hacker conference. The three-day event draws thousands of sophisticated hackers and tech security experts annually.

“This gives us time to review their research and see if there’s any validity to it and if in fact we need to take any corrective action,†said T spokeswoman Lydia Rivera.