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AC-DC went nuclear on Iran

by on11 August 2014



No fair play

The "state sponsored” hackers who shut down Iran’s nuclear programme using Stuxnet uses the popular beat combo AC-DC to rub in the insult.

Between 2009 and 2010, Iran's nuclear program was downed by the American and Israeli governments using malware known as Stuxnet. Although the Americans and Israeli’s denied it, Stuxnet took control of centrifuge controls in facilities across the country, causing thousands of machines to break. But apparently the attackers also hijacked the facilities' workstations and used them to play AC/DC. Loud.

Speaking at the Black Hat security conference, Finnish computer security expert Mikko Hypponen recalled an email he received from an Iranian scientist at the time of the Stuxnet attacks. 

He said the Iranian said there was some music playing randomly on several of the workstations during the middle of the night with the volume maxed out. It appears it was Aussie rock band AC-DC playing Thunderstruck.

"The attackers also managed to gain root access to the machine they entered from and removed all the logs," he said.

Looking at the lyrics you can see why it was chosen as a weapon of mass destruction, other than just being extremely annoying.

Thunder, thunder, thunder, thunder
I was caught
In the middle of a railroad track
I looked round
And I knew there was no turning back
My mind raced
And I thought what could I do
And I knew
There was no help, no help from you
Sound of the drums
Beating in my heart
The thunder of guns
Tore me apart
You've been
Thunderstruck

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