According to reports, the nuclear research organization of Iran, namely Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), has been the victim of another major hacking attempt. The hackers infiltrated two Iranian nuclear facility networks by gaining access to the Virtual Private Networks (VPN) of the facilities. After that the real fun began. Systems were being shut down automatically, a song from Australian band AC/DC named “Thunderstruck” started playing automatically in full volume; and all these left the scientists and security of the facilities confused about what’s happening.
An Iranian scientist contacted cyber-security firm F-Secure explaining the issue. However, the identity of the scientist could not be confirmed except the fact that the mail was sent from an AEOI server. You can read the letter below.
”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.
According to the email our cyber experts sent to our teams, they believe a hacker tool Metasploit was used. The hackers had access to our VPN. The automation network and Siemens hardware were attacked and shut down. I only know very little about these cyber issues as I am scientist not a computer expert.
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 is not the first time that the Iran’s nuclear system program is the target of cyber attacks. But, this time, it was quite a fun! Just watch, what the hackers were playing.
Source: F-Secure
