Mannerisms

"This requires a balancing of interests," said the Dutch court, "it should be considered that the publication of scientific studies carries a lot of weight in a democratic society, as does informing society about serious issues in the chip, because it allows for mitigating of the risks."

The researchers had presented NXP with their findings so that NXP could implement measures to increase the security of their chips.

However NXP chose to go to court to gag the researchers who threatened to go public with their findings in October.

The NXP RFID chip is used in the London Oyster travel cards, and a Dutch travel card called Mifare.

The researchers argued that they have allowed ample time for NXP to repair the issues.

A University of Virginia researcher has said that NXP was told of the flaws in its RFID chip as early as 2007. It was said that clones have been available in the market since 2004.