US petrol stations are vulnerable to cyberattack

From WeLiveSecurity:

US petrol stations are vulnerable to cyberattack

More than 5,000 devices in petrol stations in the US can be manipulated from the internet, causing false alarms, closure of the petrol station and locking the monitoring services out of the system.

 

The issue with the devices – known as automated tank gauges (ATGs) – appears to affect about 35 stations in the entire US, after security researchers performed a scan for unprotected devices.

 

“An attacker with access to the serial port interface of an ATG may be able to shut down the station by spoofing the reported fuel level, generating false alarms, and locking the monitoring service out of the system”, said HD Moore, the chief research officer at security firm Rapid7, in a blog post.