Happened to me coming out of the old Kuala Lumpar some years ago, (B744). The area was active with CB but still flyable. We were between build-ups but could still see this vertical bolt marching to wards us, we could do nothing about it, it was much too fast. It hit the nose and the auto-pilot dropped out and a few minor systems were temporarily lost. We were lucky as it can be a whole lot worse.