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Iranian Nuclear Program Rocked Hard By AC/DC Virus

Andy Chalk | 25 July 2012 4:30 pm

A mysterious, musical computer virus has left Iranian nuclear scientists positively thunderstruck.

Poor Iran. As if Stuxnet [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/computer_malware/stuxnet/index.html ] and Flame [ http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/117655-Flame-Virus-Freaking-Out-Cybersecurity-Personnel-Worldwide ] weren't enough, now a new virus appears to be targeting not the hardware but the scientists themselves. F-Secure Chief Research Officer Mikko Hypponen says he's received emails from a scientist at the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran describing a new kind of cyber-attack on its computers, and it's a doozy.

"I am writing you to inform you that our nuclear program has once again been compromised and attacked by a new worm with exploits which have shut down our automation network at Natanz and another facility Fordo near Qom," one email says. "There was also some music playing randomly on several of the workstations during the middle of the night with the volume maxed out. I believe it was playing 'Thunderstruck' by AC/DC."

Hypponen wrote on this blog that while he can't confirm the details, he can confirm that the person he was communicating with was sending and receiving emails from within the AEOI.

The whole thing sounds more like a prank than the concerted cyber-warfare attack represented by Stuxnet, but random explosions of full-volume "Thunderstruck," especially in a country that doesn't have a strong tradition of Aussie bro-rock, could certainly be disconcerting for scientists stuck in the room where it's happening. And loud music has in fact been used as a psychological weapon in the past, such as when the U.S. military used it to help force the surrender of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega in 1989, or when I tried to piss off my dad that one time.

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© 2012 THEMIS MEDIA

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/118705-Iranian-Nuclear-Program-Rocked-Hard-By-AC-DC-Virus [with comments]


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Iran’s Nuclear Facilities Infected by AC/DC ‘Thunderstruck’ Computer Virus



July 2012 by Rock Cellar Magazine Staff

Back in 2009, the boisterous sounds of AC/DC were used at Guantanamo Bay to intimidate detainees. It’s now three years later, but it would appear that the band is again being used for similarly…curious purposes.

In a story that has become quite the buzz lately, e-mails purported to be sent from someone inside Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization reported some kind of cyber attack that caused Thunderstruck being blasted from various computers, at full blast.

From the scientist’s e-mail [ http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00002403.html ], which also describes some more technically-savvy attacks on their computer system:

There was also some music playing randomly on several of the workstations during the middle of the night with the volume maxed out. I believe it was playing ‘Thunderstruck’ by AC/DC.

It was confirmed that the initial e-mail did come from within Iran’s nuclear facility, although the exact validity (and cause) of the AC/DC attack remains a mystery. The damaging effects of cyber attacks are normally nothing to be laughed at, but it’s hard to imagine docks of unattended computers blasting AC/DC at 2 in the morning without smiling.

Copyright 2012 Rock Cellar Magazine (emphasis in original)

http://www.rockcellarmagazine.com/2012/07/25/irans-nuclear-facility-infected-by-acdc-thunderstruck-computer-virus/ [no comments yet] [the YouTube (embedded) at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RukUetw0hAM ]