KARACHI: It has been alleged that computer hackers have forced workers at two of Iran’s controversial nuclear facilities to endure AC/DC’s hit song “Thunderstruck” repeatedly.
Until now as computer hacking is concerned, the most recent violation of security is at Iran’s nuclear facilities which shows music of Australian rock band AC/DC.
The song is played at full volume, sometimes in the middle of the night.
However, there has been no confirmation of the attack from Iran as the evidence stems from a
series of e-mails purporting to be from the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran.
An unnamed Iranian scientist e-mailed Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer for Finnish
Internet security firm F-Secure, saying that the facilities at Natanz and Fordo, near Qom,
were hit by a worm.
Apart from disabling the automated network at both sites, the malware seemed to have an
interesting side effect of blaring out AC/DC at any given moment.
Hypponen confirmed to the media that he had received the e-mails and that he had been
e-mailing the scientist about the incident over the weekend.
He sent a redacted copy of the e-mail, which said, “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.”
Another e-mail made reference to AC/DC's Thunderstruck being played “on several workstations
in the middle of the night with the volume maxed out.”
It’s not the first time that the Iranian nuclear programme has been the target of malware.
The destructive Stuxnet worm has now affected around 60 per cent of computers in Iran, and
is widely held responsible for wrecking the centrifuge at the Nantaz nuclear facility.
Iran has confirmed that work has halted several times at the facility because of “technical
issues”, and use of the centrifuge has dropped by 30 per cent.
Stuxnet was thought at first to be the work of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, but
experts have recently turned the finger of suspicion to point at the US.
Many experts believe that the future of warfare will heavily rely on a country’s ability to
“spike” their enemies’ computer networks.
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