Monday, July 30, 2012

Iranian Nuclear Facilities Hacked, Blasting AC/DC Music


Incidentally, AC/DC music was among "the loud music played to detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison facility in preparation for interrogations", as the article below notes.

From San Francisco Chronicle quoting Bloomberg News (7/25/2012):

(Updates with comments from Iranian Information Technology official starting in sixth paragraph, AC/DC profile in seventh.)

July 25 (Bloomberg) -- Iran’s nuclear facilities have suffered a cyber attack that shut down computers and played music from the rock band AC/DC, the F-Secure Security Labs website said.

A new worm targeted Iran’s nuclear program, closing down the “automation network” at the Natanz and Fordo facilities, the Internet security site reported, citing an e-mail it said was sent by a scientist inside Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization.

The virus also prompted several of the computers on site to play the song “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC at full volume in the middle of the night, according to the e-mail, part of which is published in English on the website.

F-Secure Security Labs, which is linked to F-Secure Oyj, the Finnish maker of security and cloud software, said that while it was unable to verify the details of the attack described, it had confirmed that the scientist who reported them was sending and receiving the e-mails from within Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization.

Iran’s nuclear program and oil facilities have been subject to a succession of cyber attacks that the Foreign Ministry said in May were launched by hostile governments as part of a broader “soft war.” Iran accuses the U.S. and Israel of trying to sabotage its technological progress. Both countries say Iran’s nuclear activities may have military intent, an allegation that Iran denies.

Iran has called on the United Nations to condemn organized cyber attacks against nations, the head of Iran’s Information Technology Organization Ali Hakim Javadi said today, according to a report by the state-run news channel Press TV. Significant investment is needed for the creation of malware viruses such as Stuxnet or Flame, which previously targeted Iran, indicating that they were not produced by individuals, the Iranian official said.

AC/DC have played “high voltage rock ’n’ roll” since they were formed in 1973 in Australia, according to the band’s website. Their songs were among the loud music played to detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison facility in preparation for interrogations, the Associated Press reported in October 20009, citing the National Security Archive in Washington.

F-Secure Security Labs is involved in analyzing viruses, spyware and spam attacks, according to its website.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Visions of a sound truck blasting AC/DC in front of Noda's house....

Anonymous said...

Why would a country so rich in oil like Iran embark in the construction of npps? while, at the same time, it does not have the refineries to process its oil by itself.
The only reason I can think of is that Iran wants to stockpile plutonium.
Sadly, the same goes for Japan: nuclear energy has been estimated to be slightly cheaper than oil even including all the damages from the Fukushima accident, but EXCLUDING the cost of managing spent fuel for at least hundreds of years. Why would *any* country build npps if not to stockpile plutonium?
Beppe

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

Iran does have refineries. Newt Gingrich wanted to bomb the refineries to "defeat" Iran.

Anonymous said...

so, where do we download this new worm and then how can we upload it to Ooi NPP ?

Anonymous said...

you would need modern computers in order for this virus to work.

Japanese NPPs are so old and outdated, that there are no computers you could infect with this software.....

Anonymous said...

Heard about this the other day. It again underscores the often underestimated dangers of having crucial systems maintained by hackable or potentially faulty computers. Well, relying on human judgment can be just as dangerous though.

Anonymous said...

Although Ac Dc rocks, they should have left the acdc out. The algorithm must have been written by hacker kids our government busted.

Anonymous said...

AC/DC is for sissies they should have used the band GWAR

http://i1022.photobucket.com/albums/af343/Andy_Farmer/gwar1.jpg

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