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Report: Musical cyber attack strikes Iranian nuclear reactors
Iran's Natanz and Fordo facilities have been hit by virus that plays AC/DC song, shuts down computer systems, according to e-mail believed to have been sent by Iranian scientist
Iranian nuclear facilities have been struck by a musical cyber virus, according to an e-mail believed to have been sent by an Iranian
scientist to a Finnish digital security firm.
Mikko Hypponen, a chief researcher at the F-Secure firm, posted the e-mail on the company's blog. According to the message, the Natanz and Fordo nuclear facilities have been hit with the virus, which plays the heavy metal song "Thunderstruck," by AC/DC.
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Other than playing songs, the malware has shut down computer systems and disabled Siemens hardware.
According to Hypponen, the e-mail was sent by "a scientist working at the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI)."
Iranian letter in F-secure blog
Though unsure as to the accuracy of the virus details, Hypponen can confirm that the email was indeed sent from an Iranian facility server.
And Another Virus
The alleged musical assault on the nuclear reactors comes on the heels of two other cyber attacks: the Flame Virus, discovered in May 2012 and Stuxnet, which is estimated to have hit approximately 1,000 centrifuges for uranium enrichment, managed by a Siemens software. As far as the Stuxnet is concerned, Siemens seemed to have found a solution. On Monday, Siemens issued software security updates that are supposed to fix the loopholes that allowed the Stuxnet worm to penetrate nuclear facilities and hold back the Iranian nuclear program by two years, according to estimates.Siemens stated that its software updates address the loopholes discovered in 2010, the year in which the Stuxnet worm was discovered.
