person typing on computer (Photo : Reuters )
In a new development after Ashley Madison was hacked by the Impact Team last month, the CPU of every employee of the cheating website was reportedly set up to play the AC/DC song "Thunderstruck" (1990). Computer security reporter Brian Krebs broke the news on July 20 after receiving a link to the hack's source code, then hours later a Twitter user tweeted a link to that programming data.
One month following the hack of the cheaters website, Ashley Madison CEO Noel Biderman's resignation was announced on August 28, Friday. This followed Biderman's refusal to cave in to the hackers' demand to take the site off the Web, and buzz that the former chief executive himself had been in several extramarital affairs, according to Wired.
The mysterious Twitter account that posted the code was "Thadeus Zu." During the Toronto police's press conference regarding the website's hack, they included details about the "Thunderstruck" song.
Krebs then sifted through five years of Zu's Twitter posts. In boasting about one hack of the Australian Parliament's website and another digital attack in the Netherlands, he referred to the band AC/DC and its song "Thunderstruck," according to Komando. Both posts were made in 2012.
Krebs then reviewed the tweets that Zu made on July 19. That was one day before the former was notified about the hack.
In one post @deuszu mentioned the set-up of a replication server before launching "that show." Interestingly, in another tab the song "Thunderstruck" had been opened via YouTube.
Last week the Impact Team leaked the hacked data from the Ashley Madison site. It also included a "Time's Up" note with the released info.
Krebs was unable to contact "Thadeus Zu." In addition, he could not discover his true identity or his geographic whereabouts.
The security expert explained that Zu could be a "white hat" (testing) security researcher or top-secret informant. Krebs concluded that even if Zu had not participated in the hack, he likely knew who did.
Zu tweeted on August 27, Thursday that he was not the Ashley Madison hacker. He also claimed that he had no contact with Impact Team.
The Ashley Madison website was launched in 2001. Its slogan is "Life is short. Have an affair."
Here is a video of the AC/DC song "Thunderstruck" from the movie "Battleship":
