Researchers: Gas station fuel tanks are vulnerable to potential attack

It appears the serial ports of automated tank gauges (ATGs) of almost 5,300 gas stations and fuel depots in the United States are vulnerable because they aren't password protected. ATGs are used to more accurately track fuel tank inventory levels, raise alarms, track fuel deliveries, and conduct leak tests - but people with access to the interfaces could cause problems, according to the Rapid7 Security Street blog.

It doesn't look like there have been any incidents of actual breaches, but shows the importance of password protecting connected technologies. ATGs can be accessed via serial port, plug-in serial port, TCP/IP circuit board, and fax/modem.

Rapid7 was made aware of the issue by Jack Chadowitz, founder of the Kachoolie security firm, and started investing ATG vulnerabilities since Jan. 9.