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Hackers Actively Targeting Gas Pumps
An anonymous reader writes: Security researchers from Trend Micro wondered what kind of cyberattacks might target one of our most common and vital pieces of infrastructure: gas pumps. So, they set up some honeypots to find out if and how gas pumps were being attacked. The researchers ended up getting more than they bargained for. Between February and July, there were at least 23 distinct attacks on their honeypots alone (PDF). This included identifications, modifications, and DDoS attacks. "In their research, they found that a DoS or DDoS attack could disrupt inventory control and distribution, which means gas stations may not have enough supply on hand. Changing pump names could result in the wrong fuel being added to a tank—such as putting Unleaded inside Premium, or vice versa. Drivers wouldn't like that. Or changing the pump volume could result in tanks being underfilled."
You'd think we would see some actual disruption. Seems like pumps have adequate protection thus far.
To answer both of you, I'm guessing things differ in your part of the world and you're simply not aware that things can be different. You're are both right.
Not really. There's (typically) only two grades of gasoline at the station and they mix them to make the grades in between with a blend valve, no matter how many hoses there are on the pump. If they have a third tank, it's for diesel, but that always has a separate hose. So you absolutely never know that the grade of gas you're getting is the same as the one you paid for, unless you do an octane test. You can actually do a halfway decent octane test with just two devices; one which tells you the alcohol content (ugh) and one which tells you the specific gravity — a hydrometer. I have a pair of them for measuring cetane levels; you can do it with diesel fuel, too.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Have your staff report daily on the amount of gas sold, don't put this shit online for fucks sake.
Stop overreacting. Putting it online saves labor, lowers costs, and has caused ZERO problems. The worst that could happen is that someday a few people get mispriced gas, or unleaded instead of premium (in which case 90% won't even notice because their car isn't designed to use high octane anyway). You should find something else to panic about.