Court Extends MIT Subway Hacking Gag Order

August 15, 2008 10:28 a.m. EST

Boston, MA (AHN) - A federal judge in Boston agreed Thursday to extend a gag order on three MIT students from discussing how they circumvented security of electronic payment cards used by the Massachusetts subway systems.

Judge George O'Toole Jr. also ruled the three students - Zach Anderson, R.J. Ryan and Alessandro Chiesa - must submit additional information about their research, including data they turned into professor Ronald Rivest.

On Aug. 8, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority obtained a temporary restraining order blocking the MIT students presenting their finding to the DefCon hacker gathering in Las Vegas last weekend. Although their talk was cancelled, copies of the presentation leaked onto the Internet and were distributed before the gag order.

This Tuesday, the parties will again meet in court, this time to determine whether the restraining order should be cancelled or tailored to address only "nonpublic" information.

Advocy group Electronic Frontier Foundation, said it would appeal Thursday's ruling on behalf of the three MIT students, saying the gag order infringes their free-speech rights.