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A handful of attackers targeted fake fuel-tank monitors during a six-month month experiment, showing that real Internet-connected monitors are at risk, according to Trend Micro researchers.

Petrol station monitoring systems are under attack all over the world, some by possible nation state allied hackers, according to new research from Trend Micro. The cyber security giant explained in new research presented at Black Hat 2015 that attacks against these unsecured SCADA systems are no longer theoretical.

Turns out there were quite a few attacks—at least 23—between February and July, where adversaries modified information associated with gas pumps, Trend Micro's Kyle Wilhoit and Stephen Hilt said at the Black Hat security conference here. The duo observed 12 pump identifications, four pump modifications, and two distributed denial of service or denial of service attacks.

This incident motivated Kyle Wilhoit and Stephen Hilt, two security researchers at Trend Micro, to make an experiment. They set up 10 fake gas station monitoring systems and put them online as honeypots. To hackers, or anyone looking for these systems, they looked exactly like regular gas monitoring devices known as Guardian AST, which are made to check and control fuel levels in gas station tanks, and alert operators whenever they get too low.

Cybercrime has developed substantially due to bulletproof hosting service efficiency. Trend Micro's report explains how and why these services evade law enforcement officials and remain online.