Thunderstruck: Iranian Computer Systems Hit With 'AC/DC' Attack

Computer systems in Iran were allegedly attacked on Monday by a malware that forced workstations “to play AC/DC's Thunderstruck at full volume in the middle of the night,” the International Business Times reports.

We don't care what anyone says, that's pretty much the most awesome act of international

sabotage we've ever heard of.

Lead researcher at the Finnish computer security firm F-Secure Mikko Hypponen wrote on his blog that a colleague working at the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran

(AEOI) sent him an e-mail informing him that the system had come under cyber-attack.

"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," reads the email.

"According to the email our cyber experts sent to our teams, they believe a hacker tool Metasploit was used," the email added.

Metasploit is a cheap and easy to develop program that hunts down vulnerabilities in software, according to the IBT report.

"There was also some music playing randomly on several of the workstations during the middle of the night with the volume maxed out," the e-mail reads. "I believe it was playing 'Thunderstruck' by AC/DC."

Of course, as many Blaze readers know, this isn’t the first time Iran’s systems have been infiltrated. Remember Flame?

“During the Flame spyware case, [Hypponen] reported in Wired about how an Iranian computer security analyst had contacted him to notify him about the virus,” IBT reports, adding that Hypponen is convinced the U.S. government was behind the attack.

“Flame was discovered in June having gone undiscovered for at least two years, thanks to the sophistication of the software involved,” the report adds.

The report continues:

It has been described as one of the most complex pieces of malware ever discovered. Flame infected computers in the Middle East, in countries such as Iran, Israel and Sudan, with the majority of infected computers, according to Kaspersky's data, being in Iran.

Calling it the James Bond of the malware world, Hypponen admitted his company's was impotent against Flame. It allowed those who created it to search for and upload documents and files on a remote computer, watch and listen to what's taking place around the infected PC by turning on the camera or microphone, and even copy the address book from mobile phone within range of the computer.

While no one has "officially" claimed responsibility for the Flame attack, many suspect that it was a collaboration between U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies.

(H/T: Hot Air)