I don't know if anyone needs to be reminded of this, but VHS tapes kept the movies on magnetized ribbons.
A strong enough magnetic field would corrupt/ruin whatever was on it.
A nuke from a world that runs on rule-of-cool physics, amped up by radioactive supersteroids, might be meta enough to transcend the media and target the tape itself.
Hacking the world computer and stealing all the secrets and money for the US government was just a red herring.
Why didn't they ever try it before? The president wouldn't sign off on it. They've been waiting for one of these extradimensional dummies to replace him, and then they can con him into giving the okay before he understands what's what.