Iranian nuclear program hit by virus, plays AC/DC

The Western world isn't particularly fond of Iran's nuclear program. That's stating the obvious. Specifically, the Western world isn't sure what to do about the country potentially having nuclear armaments. According to the British agency MI6, the Iranians could be readying their first nuclear missile in as little as two years, as is being discussed on our forums.

It seems that someone is doing something about it, for computers used in Iran's nuclear program have fallen victim to a new virus. The virus has quite literally thunderstruck the computers, turning them on at night and forcing them to belt out AC/DC's 1990 song "Thunderstruck". The news comes from a letter sent to Finnish company F-Secure by an Iranian scientist. According to the scientist the virus has appeared at the Natanz Uranium enrichment plant in central Iran, and at another facility in Fordo, to the south-west of the capital city of Tehran.

Reportedly the virus has turned off automatic system operations, in addition to playing an excellent song repeatedly. The equipment that has been affected was supplied by the German Siemens Corporation, though has been taken out of operation due to the virus. It is worth pointing out that there is no way to verify the sender. We do know that it came from a server operated by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, which does seem to make sense. The scientist wrote the following in the letter concerning the song.

“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,"

This could be the third time the Iranian nuclear program has been disrupted. In 2010, a virus known as Stuxnet set the program back at least two years. Earlier this year another virus was found, called 'Flame'. The virus was credited as being one of the most complicated ever, and was meant for spying on the web in Iran and the Middle East. From the sound of things it isn't as big an issue as the other two might have been, but being thunderstruck in the middle of some delicate research probably isn't great either.