Researcher's Serial Port Scans Find More Than 100,000 Hackable Devices, Including Traffic Lights And Fuel Pumps

You probably remember serial ports as the ancient nine-pin plug you once used to hook up your mouse or joystick to your computer in the pre-USB dark ages. But tracking down devices that still use serial port connections isn't so hard, it seems. In fact, according to H.D. Moore, any hacker can find--and tamper with--more than 100,000 of them over the Internet, including critical systems ranging from traffic lights to fuel pumps to building heating and cooling systems to retail point-of-sale devices.