Lizard Squad Hacks Malaysia Airlines Website, Warns of ‘Dumping’ User Data

Malaysia Airlines’ website was down for several hours on Monday after the hacking groups ‘Lizard Squad’ and ‘Cyber Caliphate’ took turns defacing the homepage.

According to The Wall Street Journal, visitors of MalaysiaAirlines.com saw a message reading “404 – Plane Not Found” and “Hacked by Cyber Caliphate” on a large backdrop image of a Malaysia Airlines A380 plane. The browser window displayed “ISIS WILL PREVAIL,” while users were left unable to book flights or access other services.

Later, the website appeared to display a different image, with a message reading “Hacked by LIZARD SQUAD – OFFICIAL CYBER CALIPHATE.”

The webpage referenced the hacking group’s Twitter account, which has since hinted at leaking customer data found on the airline’s servers.

In a written statement, Malaysia Airlines responded to the “temporary glitch,” reassuring users that their information was secure and that the issue had been resolved. The company added the incident was immediately reported to CyberSecurity Malaysia and the Ministry of Transport.

However, following Malaysia Airline’s statement, Lizard Squad responded on Twitter by saying:

The hacking group has recently gained notoriety following the Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox network outage that the group claimed to orchestrate over the Christmas holiday. Meanwhile, Cyber Caliphate also claimed responsibility for hacking the U.S. Central Command’s Twitter and YouTube accounts earlier this month.