--------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index] GeeK: The Taking of Pelham, One, Two, Free --------------------------------------------------------------------------- * To: geeks@umich.edu, ccordes@us.ibm.com, chunk@monkey.org * Subject: GeeK: The Taking of Pelham, One, Two, Free * From: evan.cordes@umich.edu * Date: Fri, 09 Jan 1998 00:27:55 -0500 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/nyc-transitcard.html January 9, 1998 New York Transit Officials Tinker to Prevent 'Swiping' Without Paying By ANDY NEWMAN NEW YORK -- Concerned that people are figuring out how to alter their Metrocards to get free rides, transit officials said on Thursday that they would reprogram all 3,000-plus subway turnstiles by next week. But the change could make it harder for passengers to swipe damaged Metrocards, transit officials acknowledged, inconveniencing what they said would be a small fraction of riders. For at least a year, officials said on Thursday, transit officials have known that people could trick the turnstile into accepting a Metrocard without deducting value from it by physically manipulating the card. Officials would not discuss the technique other than to say that it involved destroying some of the data on the card's magnetic strip. But officials said that nothing was done because so few people had manipulated the cards that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority did not feel it was losing enough revenue to justify inconveniencing riders. On Wednesday, however, the police announced that they had arrested two people for electronic fare-beating, and fearful that the publicity would cause word of the technique to spread quickly, the authority decided to retool the software on its $700-million turnstile system to reject manipulated cards. Officials said the cure would also mean that more Metrocard users with scratched or defective cards would have to mail the cards in to get them replaced. "Are we going to inconvenience a lot of customers?" said Christopher P. Boylan, a deputy executive director of the MTA. "Probably not a lot. More than we're doing today? Not too many more. Is it worth it to safeguard the system against people trying to scam us? Definitely." Boylan said the change would not affect good Metrocards that are simply passed through the reader too quickly or too slowly or at an angle. He said such failed swipes made up the overwhelming majority of instances where riders have to use their cards a second or third time. Lawrence Reuter, the president of New York City Transit, the arm of the MTA that runs the subways, said on Thursday that six of the modified cards were used on Monday an average of 50 times each by cheaters at the 42nd Street Station on the Eighth Avenue line and at the 116th Street station of the 1 and 9 lines. "The police would see people swiping other people through and collecting money," he said. The police would not release the names of the people arrested, saying that the matter was still under investigation. Tightening the security system to block out the cheaters will require opening up each turnstile and reprogramming a chip inside, Boylan said, a process that will take a few minutes per turnstile and cost the authority only a few hundred hours of labor. But the reprogramming that will thwart the use of doctored cards will also make the turnstiles less tolerant of cards with magnetic strips that have been accidentally scratched or demagnetized. As the system is currently set up, when the turnstile receives a card with a damaged strip, it sends the rider a "please swipe again" message. On the second try, said Ron Kane, vice president for public affairs for the Cubic Corp., which makes the turnstiles, the turnstile tries to repair the electronic damage to the strip and lets the rider through. But the next time the rider uses the card, if the turnstile cannot read it, it invalidates the card, requiring the rider to mail the card back to the transportation authority to be replaced. After next week, however, if the turnstile cannot read after the first two attempts, it will declare it invalid immediately. Transit officials said that so far, the cheaters had caused little revenue loss. Even at a rate of 300 free rides a day, the amount that officials said was racked up Monday, the cheaters would cost the transportation authority about $164,000 a year in lost revenue. That is only a tiny fraction of the $22 million that the agency lost in 1996 in fare-beating, mostly by turnstile-jumping and sneaking through the gates. Officials said they did not know whether yesterday's news inspired huge numbers of people to try to tamper with Metrocards. But on the Internet, where hackers have been trying to figure out how to crack the card's code since it was introduced in 1994, electronic bulletin boards were abuzz with postings like "What's the new way to hack Metrocard?" "Supposedly a card folded along the T of 'Metrocard' allows this," wrote a user who signed himself "The Railroad Clerk from Hell." That method appeared to be worth a try to someone. At the Broadway-Lafayette Street station on Thursday afternoon, there were several discarded Metrocards sitting on the ledge of the token booth. One of them was bent at the T. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Prev by Date: GeeK: Geeky crap at NAIAS * Next by Date: GeeK: Bored? * Prev by thread: GeeK: Geeky crap at NAIAS * Next by thread: GeeK: Bored? * Index(es): o Date o Thread