Court order puts a stop to Defcon talk on subway hacks

A Defcon conference talk scheduled on Sunday was canceled following a lawsuit by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) against the three Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) students scheduled to present. The students were scheduled to deliver a talk explicitly titled: "The Anatomy of a Subway Hack: Breaking Crypto RFIDs & Magstripes of Ticketing Systems".

MBTA probably didn't react well to some of the topics, which included techniques to clone and reverse-engineering MBTA's CharlieCard.  The CharlieCard is based on the same Mifare Classic RFID technology that was cracked earlier this year [1]. Indeed, one of the bylines that has since been removed from the Defcon website described the talk this way: "Want free subway rides for life?" MBTA has reason to be concerned: In court filings, the MBTA noted that 68 percent of its riders use the CharlieCard, which brings in about $475,000 each weekday.

For more on this article:
- check out this NetworkWorld article [2]