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MIT Hackers Back to Court

The case of a group of MIT computer hackers and the MBTA is back in federal court today.

The students are under a court order not to publicly share their apparently successful hack into the MBTA's Charlie Card system.

WBUR's Monica Brady-Myerov reports.

MBM: Today a gag order expires that has prevented three MIT students from publishing the security flaws within the MTBA system. The MBTA is expected to ask the judge to continue to ban the students from sharing information that could be used to get free subway rides until the MBTA can fix the problem. Rebecca Jeskey, spokesperson for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is representing the MIT students, says this violates their constitutional rights.

JESKEY: The attorneys will be arguing that the students have a right to speak and that this prior restraint goes against their first amendment.

MBM: The Electronic Frontier Foundation says the students already shared the security problem with the MBTA, but they refused to give their entire research paper to the judge saying it violates their first amendment rights.

This program aired on August 19, 2008. The audio for this program is not available.

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