09 August 2008

Legalizing Incompetence ~ MBTA Shafts Students

In the Gross Stupidity department, we have Exhibit A: MBTA suing MIT students Zack Anderson, Russell Ryan, and Alessandro Chiesa to stop these hackers -- i.e. academic researchers -- from speaking... ...about the shockingly weak and lame-ass MBTA security and the completely bone-headed equipment choices that allow anybody to readily crack the CharlieCard system... In an unconstitutional and CYA move, some politically-compliant technophobe Judge allowed the injunction, thus Legalizing Incompetence on the part of the morons in charge of the T. Because who else would specify and purchase such a weak and easily-compromised system? And, by the way, all the essential information about the insecure system is: (a) already distributed, (b) knowledge widely available, including to the MBTA long-ago, and (c) now even more widely known because of the publicity surrounding this ill-considered lawsuit. Maybe the MBTA officialdom should focus on competently engineering a proper payment system instead of seeking legal protection for their incompetence.

1 comment:

Demoman said...

Charlie card fits into paper card reader and gets stuck, requiring T employee to intervene mechanically, with a key. Incompetent, indeed.