MIT project energizes hacking community

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug. 18 (UPI) -- A student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has electrified the hacking community with a project aimed at a major transport system, students say.

While the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority successfully sued MIT student Zack Anderson in order to suppress the hacking project he created, his fellow students say the 21-year-old electrical engineering major has become a veritable hacking hero, The Boston Globe said Monday.

The situation began when Anderson and two other students, R. J. Ryan and Alessandro Chiesa, claimed to have found a way to hack into the $180 million MBTA automated fare-collection system.

The state group sued the trio to ensure they would not release details of their project at the hacker's convention, DEFCON, which takes place in Las Vegas each year.

Attendees of the Aug. 8-10 convention told the Globe while details of the hacking scheme were slim at the gathering, the trio's accomplishment was all anyone was talking about.

"It was all the discussion at DEFCON," convention attendee Dave Marcus said. "Anytime you suppress research, it goes through the research community like wildfire. We can all feel like 'the man' is coming down on us as security researchers."