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AC/DC-themed Virus May Have Hit Iran

A week later, Iran is now issuing a denial

by
Adam Chandler
August 02, 2012

I have an embarrassing admission to make. As a teenager in Houston, Texas, I managed–for a number of years–to fall under the spell of hard rock bands whose mere mention now would elicit scorn from my co-workers that I’m not yet ready to handle.

One of those bands happens to be AC/DC and I remember that in 8th grade I went to see them on their Ballbreaker Tour. My inexplicably tolerant mom dropped me and a friend off at The Summit–the arena where the Houston Rockets used to play basketball–that night for the show. The Summit eventually became Lakewood Church, Joel Osteen’s mega-pulpit, which now seats crowds of 20,000-plus on Sunday mornings.

Anyway, we liked AC/DC for the same reasons most people did. They played loud rock anthems with slashing guitar solos and all of their lyrics were full of sexual innuendoes. Even though I had braces and a curfew, I was also enchanted by the mythology of a band whose original lead singer, Bon Scott, had written a song where he sang “I’m on a highway to hell” not long before he died a young, totally avoidable death. You find these perverse things cool when you’re 14.

Perverse things you find cool many years later: Sites are reporting that last week Iranian nuclear facilities suffered a cyber attack where computers were struck with a virus that shut them down before blasting the AC/DC song “Thunderstuck.”

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.

Today, of course, Iran is denying that the attack took place. I realize this a serious topic, but if this virus is real, it needs to honored.

As a tribute, I thought to compile a Top 10 List of other appropriate or equally-menacing AC/DC songs to include in computer viruses:

1. Shoot to Thrill
2. Hells Bells
3. Big Gun
4. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
5. You Shook Me All Night Long
6. T.N.T.
7. The Jack
8. Highway to Hell
9. For Those About to Rock, We Salute You
10. Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to Be

For you skeptics, I also encourage you to watch this video of “Thunderstruck” for three reasons. The first is that it’s awesome. The second is that this video has been viewed (no joke) nearly four million times. And the third is that, laugh all you want at AC/DC, but their tribute album to Bon Scott, “Back in Black,” is the second-highest selling album of all-time, behind Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”

If the video won’t show on your browser, try this one instead. It’s been viewed almost seven million times.

Adam Chandler was previously a staff writer at Tablet. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Slate, Esquire, New York, and elsewhere. He tweets @allmychandler.