August 14th, 2008
Decision on MIT students' gag order delayed until Tuesday
The MIT students currently under a gag order not to speak about their research into security holes in the Boston’s CharlieCard system will spend the weekend still gagged. A federal judge today declined to lift a temporary restraining order until it expires on Tuesday, News.com reports.
The students claimed the TRO violates their First Amendment rights and constitutes prior restraint but the judge passed on those issues until Tuesday.
The judge also granted a request by the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority requiring the students to turn over additional documents regarding the vulnerability by Friday afternoon, even though they produced a 30-page report to the court today.
The students provided the court and MBTA officials with a new 30-page report that details all of their findings, including particular information to complete the Charlie Card hack that they say they had no intention of revealing in the Defcon discussion. But T officials still want additional information, saying they want to ensure no other vulnerabilities exist that the students have yet to reveal. (This is in addition to a 5-page analysis, marked “confidential,” that the students sent to MBTA last week.)
Granick told reporters after the hearing that there is no more relevant information that her clients, Alessandro Chiesa, R.J. Ryan, and Zack Anderson, can provide. “That document should have resolved the whole matter,” Granick said, adding, “There is no other shoe to drop.”
Electronic Frontier Foundation lawyer Jennifer Granick is considering an appeal to the First Circuit Court of Appeals but there’s a strong chance it wouldn’t be granted before the Friday afternoon deadline.
