Tag Archive for: gas

300+ gallons for $30? Men accused of using device to steal gas face felony charges


NASSAU COUNTY, Fla. – Two men accused of stealing hundreds of gallons of fuel from a 7-Eleven gas station each face a felony charge of grand theft, as well as other charges, according to the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office.

Investigators said deputies were called to the gas station Monday on Lofton Square Court, where they determined two men had installed a device on a gas pump that restricts the flow meter on its pumping system. Arrest reports state the suspects used a key to open the pumps and place the manipulator inside and then used a small remote to control the device.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, the first theft was of 367 gallons of fuel valued at $1,757.93 — but the pump only showed a charge of $30.

The Sheriff’s Office said deputies determined the same two men were involved in a second theft. Investigators said just before the deputy arrived, the men had been pumping for approximately 10 minutes and took approximately 114 gallons of gas valued at about $546.

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“It was determined that the suspects opened the gas pump cabinet using a key without authorization and knowingly and willfully installed a device, which caused the electronic computer system to understate the amount of fuel being pumped,” the Sheriff’s Office reported.

The two men arrested were identified as Ramon Vila-Garcia and Silvio Richard Aguila. Both are both being held at the Nassau County jail.

Booking photos for Ramon Vila and Silvio Aguila provided by Nassau County Sheriff’s Office.

We spoke with cyber security expert Chris Hamer about the device the men were accused of using.

“It was obviously designed by somebody with internal knowledge of the machines because it is custom-made for intercepting the signal from the actual fuel flow meter and modifying it or replacing it with a slower count,” Hamer explained. “So the computer thinks less gasoline is passing through the pipe than it actually is.”

Hamer said devices like the one found by investigators are used by members of organized theft rings that target gas stations all across the U.S.

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“The Secret Service is currently monitoring 40 groups in Florida alone,” Hamer said. “It’s a nationwide problem. It’s a worldwide problem…

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Switzerland buys mobile gas turbines as energy backup for winter


Keystone / Sascha Steinbach

The Swiss government has commandeered eight mobile gas turbines to strengthen the country’s energy security. 

This content was published on September 3, 2022 – 13:36

Keystone-SDA/ac

The procurement is the first contract signed under the governing Federal Council’s recent agreement to provide for back-up power plants. This measure will supplement the country’s hydropower reserves, which can be used in a targeted manner in winter if necessary, the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC) announced on Friday.

The eight mobile gas turbines have been purchased from GE Gas Power and will be installed at the GE site in Birr in the northern Swiss canton of Aargau. They are powered by gas, but also by oil or hydrogen. They will be ready for operation this winter until the end of 2026. The total costs over the entire period amount to CHF470 million (around$480 million).

The setup comprises eight modular turbines of TM2500 type with a capacity of at least 30 megawatts each, making a total of around 250 megawatts. 

In addition, negotiations with other potential suppliers of reserve power plants are still underway. These reserve power plants will be subject to the emissions trading scheme. At the same time, clarifications are being made as to which company will operate the plant.
 

In compliance with the JTI standards

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

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U.S. Oil and Gas Sector at Risk of a Cyber Breach According to BreachBits Study | Nation/World


ANNAPOLIS, Md.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Aug 9, 2022–

The majority of companies across the U.S. oil and gas industry are at risk of a successful cyber breach according to BreachBits, a cyber risk rating and monitoring company that evaluates and tests organizations from a hacker’s perspective to empower them to anticipate attacks. Following an analysis of 98 representative upstream, midstream, downstream and supply chain companies across the energy sector, BreachBits has released their findings in BreachRisk: Energy 2022, a cyber state of the industry study.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220809005196/en/

Chart of BreachRisk for U.S. energy companies as examined by BreachBits. (Graphic: Business Wire)

“On average, the oil and gas companies we observed were at Medium Risk, with a score of 4.1 out of ten on our BreachRisk ™ scale, but that risk was not distributed evenly across the sector,” said BreachBits CEO and Co-Founder John Lundgren. “Additionally, 11% of the companies presented potentially serious, High Risk threats. We identify and monitor cyber risks at scale as we did here, detect issues and then test them just as a hacker would for our customers.”

The study by BreachBits ranked 59% of companies at Medium Risk for a cyber breach, 13% at Low Risk and 28% at Very Low Risk. Other key observations included:

  • 94% of all ransomware threats were held by only 51% of companies.
  • BreachRisk increases for companies with greater than $50-million in annual recurring revenue.
  • BreachRisk significantly increases for companies with more than 250 employees.

BreachBits, founded by U.S. military cyber warfare veterans, measures an organization’s BreachRisk as the likelihood of a successful breach against the potential impact to the subject.

“We measure cyber risk based on actual threats and viable attack vectors, not hypothetical ones, and we do that from the hacker’s perspective. That means the risks we identified in this study are the same observations being made by active cyber attackers,” said…

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1970s gas prices surged past $1 (finally)


In 1973, the average price per gallon of gas was 39 cents.

Despite the anxiety over the possibility of $1 gas, unleaded regular didn’t reach that price in the South until Nov. 1979, when the Iran hostage crisis started, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Or did it?

Constitution staff writers Barry King and Sharon Bailey’s July 13 story from that year, headlined “Gas Goes Over $1 A Gallon In Much Of South” claimed the $1 mark was hit months sooner, noting Tampa, Fla., premium selling for as much as $1.05 and Jackson, Miss., customers paying $1.009 for premium.

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The average price for a gallon of gas in the U.S. is gradually easing after surging for weeks. The price, however, is still at record levels. A gallon of regular-grade gasiline ddropped to $4.24 per gallon after reaching an astonishing $4.43 per gallon a week ago, according to AAA.

Credit: ArLuther Lee

The average price for a gallon of gas in the U.S. is gradually easing after surging for weeks. The price, however, is still at record levels. A gallon of regular-grade gasiline ddropped to $4.24 per gallon after reaching an astonishing $4.43 per gallon a week ago, according to AAA.

Credit: ArLuther Lee

caption arrowCaption

The average price for a gallon of gas in the U.S. is gradually easing after surging for weeks. The price, however, is still at record levels. A gallon of regular-grade gasiline ddropped to $4.24 per gallon after reaching an astonishing $4.43 per gallon a week ago, according to AAA.

Credit: ArLuther Lee

Credit: ArLuther Lee

>> MORE DEJA NEWS: Check out what we’ve covered before (and again)

Closer to home, one Georgia gas station hitting the $1 mark found itself shamed for doing so.

“A service station in Augusta listed premium prices at $1.014 until a local radio station broadcast the increase in news reports,” the Constitution told readers. “The station dropped its price back to 99 cents a gallon because the station operator said he couldn’t stand the bad publicity.”

In Atlanta, however, premium averaged a comparatively cheap 95.1 cents.

READ THE ORIGINAL STORY HERE

To zoom in on the story, click the three bars at top right. Then click “Original Document (PDF).”

Besides pricing, metro Atlanta drivers in summer 1979 had another mounting concern: keeping track of which service stations were open and when.

“Ten percent … are open 24 hours a day; 44 percent are open until 8 p.m. weekdays; 64 percent are open Saturday until 6 p.m.; and 36 percent are open Sunday,” Bailey…

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