Malaysia Airlines Site Hacked By Lizard Squad
The Malaysia Airlines website has been temporarily shut down by hackers claiming to support the so-called Islamic State.
Access to the website was blocked across large parts of the world for several hours.
The homepage displayed an image of a Malaysia Airlines plane with the message "404 - Plane Not Found. Hacked by Cyber Caliphate".
The browser tab displayed the words "ISIS WILL PREVAIL".
Despite the reference to IS, Sky News understands the breach was the work of a hacking group called Lizard Squad.
In the hours before the hack, Lizard Squad sent a tweet that read: "Going to dump some loot found on malaysiaairlines.com servers soon."
The tweet was followed three hours later by another that said: "Write Lizard Squad on your forehead, thanks @MAS (Malaysia Airlines)."
The airline confirmed the hack and said the issue was now being fixed.
"Malaysia Airlines confirms that its Domain Name System (DNS) has been compromised where users are re-directed to a hacker website when www.malaysiaairlines.com URL is keyed in," the company said in a statement.
"The airline has resolved the issue with its service provider and the system is expected to be fully recovered within 22 hours. The matter has also been immediately reported to CyberSecurity Malaysia and the Ministry of Transport."
Officials at the airline claim passenger data was not compromised.
However, a screenshot on Lizard Squad's Twitter (Xetra: A1W6XZ - news) feed shows an image from the airline's secure booking page including the travel itinerary of a Malaysian government minister, representing a clear security breach.
The "plane not found" message is a clear reference to the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. The jet remains missing nearly a year after it took off from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing with 239 people on board.
Hackers from the Lizard Squad have taken credit for a number of recent cyber-attacks, including one which took down Microsoft (NasdaqGS: MSFT - news) 's Xbox Live network and Sony (Swiss: SONC.SW - news) 's PlayStation platform last month.
The message on the hacked airline website also made reference to @UMG_Chris and @UMGrobert, the Twitter accounts for the CEO and the owner of UMG Events, an online gaming provider based in the United States.
Speaking to Sky News, Chris Tuck, the UMG chief executive, said: "No idea why they (Lizard Squad) hacked them (Malaysia Airlines) other than they are a group of kids who like attention so they figured it would get them that.
"As for them adding my Twitter, they simply don't like us. They have tried to hack our websites countless times."
The Lizard Squad has no connection to IS, whose followers now control portions of Iraq and Syria.
The hack appears certain to be a mischievous prank but does represent a commercial and security blow for an airline struggling to recover from the loss of MH370 and the shooting down of MH17 over Ukraine last year.
Since the disappearance of MH370, conspiracy theorists have suggested terrorism as a possible explanation.
However, no terror group has claimed responsibility and investigators remain convinced the plane came down in the southern Indian Ocean where searches continue.
Lizard Squad has not responded to Sky News' attempts to contact them.
