defcon

Mac gamers: our friends over at Ambrosia Software just announced a great deal that will last until March 4. Three of the company's hit games--"DEFCON," "Darwinia," and "Uplink"--are all part of Ambrosia's Insurrection Collection; a package deal for just $19. To buy each of the games separately, you would spend $79, so this is definitely a deal worth looking into.

The Insurrection Collection is all part of the lead-up to the release of "Multiwinia" for Mac, the award-winning multiplayer strategy game that lets you take your armies online … Read more

This post was updated at 1:45 p.m. PDT with comment from MBTA General Manager Daniel Grabauskas.

BOSTON--The three Massachusetts Institute of Technology students who have been barred by a court order from discussing subway card vulnerabilities are now free to say what they want.

In a ruling certain to be cheered by computer researchers, a federal judge here Tuesday let the 10-day-old gag order expire. U.S. District Judge George O'Toole Jr. refused to grant a preliminary injunction requested by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority that would have blocked the students from talking about their findings until … Read more

The state of Massachusetts plans to ask a federal judge on Thursday to keep in place a restraining order that prevents three MIT students from publicly discussing vulnerabilities they discovered in subway card security.

U.S. District Judge George O'Toole in Boston is scheduled to hear arguments at 11 a.m. ET on whether to modify or eliminate the temporary restraining order, which attorneys for the students characterize as a prior restraint in violation of decades of First Amendment precedent.

A different judge who was on duty on Saturday gave the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority an order prohibiting the … Read more

Three MIT students are disputing the Massachusetts transit agency's version of the events that led to the state filing a lawsuit last week--and obtaining a restraining order against their talk on subway card security scheduled for Sunday.

The latest dispute originates in comments made by to CNET News by Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority spokesman Joe Pesaturo in in a report published Monday. In his e-mail to us, he said the students "agreed to provide the MBTA with a copy of the presentation" scheduled for the Defcon hacker conference on Sunday but never did.

A response posted Tuesday … Read more

The state of Massachusetts said Monday it is not prepared to abandon its lawsuit against MIT students who uncovered security vulnerabilities in Boston transit cards, even though thousands of copies of their 87-page presentation have been distributed.

A federal judge on Saturday granted the state transit authority's request for a restraining order barring the students' planned presentation at the Defcon conference. It orders them not to disclose any "program, information, software code, or command that would assist another in any material way to circumvent or otherwise attack the security of the Fare Media System."

The MIT students … Read more

Sometimes things don't work out as planned but still it's all to the good. That's the case with the early data for NBC's telecasts of the Beijing Olympics.

Heading into the games, a big question on the minds of NBC execs was whether Internet video and piracy would erode TV viewership.

If the first couple of days offered a harbinger, it was all much ado about nothing. As the world settles in to watch the first truly broadband Olympics, too many big media creators still judge the Web to be more of a foe than a … Read more

Back from covering the Defcon hacker fest, CNET News' Declan McCullagh explains the aftermath of a decision by a federal judge granting the Massachusetts transit authority's request for an injunction, preventing three MIT students from giving a presentation about hacking smart cards used in the Boston subway system...Olympics viewership is stronger than it's been in the last decade. But the company still hasn't figured out a strategy to best take advantage of the Internet. Webware's Rafe Needleman has a few suggestions...With hostilities escalating between Russia and Georgia, the battle has now predictably crossed over … Read more

We tried to give NBC the benefit of the doubt when it comes to Olympic streaming, but then we tried it. And it's ridiculous. Also, we wonder if the iPhone makes you fat, even as it fattens Steve Jobs' wallet. We also discuss the technicalities of invisibility cloaks, and opt-out of Obama's aggressively hip Internet outreach campaign.

Defcon ends with researchers muzzled, viruses written http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10013156-83.html

Judge orders halt to Defcon speech on subway card hacking http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10012612-83.html

Apple hits 3 million … Read more

LAS VEGAS -- The Defcon hacker conference ended its 16th year on Sunday, sending about 8,000 attendees home from a weekend of virus writing, discussion of Internet attacks, and general debauchery.

The highlight was most definitely the restraining order which prevented three MIT students from presenting their research on how to hack the Boston subway system. The students attended the event and even gave a news conference after the order came down on Saturday, but did not present their highly anticipated talk.

Instead, journalist and security expert Brenno de Winter took their empty spot and discussed how the cards … Read more