The website of Malaysia Airlines was hacked yesterday by a group that proclaimed support for the 'Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant' (ISIS) group and also vowed to release data stolen from the site. The airline's site was down for at least seven hours, replaced by a message from the hacker group, before the company brought it back online by mid-afternoon in Malaysia.
The hackers at first changed the site to display a message saying "404 - Plane Not Found" and that it was "Hacked by Cyber Caliphate," with a photo of one of the airline's Airbus A380 superjumbo jets. The browser tab for the website said " ISIS will prevail." Malaysia Airlines is struggling to recover from twin disasters last year, including the disappearance of Flight 370, which authorities believed crashed 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) off Australia's west coast, and the downing of Flight 17 over Ukraine. The hackers later replaced the jet with a picture of a lizard in a top hat, monocle and tuxedo smoking a pipe. ISIS reference was removed and the claim of responsibility changed to "Lizard Squad - Official Cyber Caliphate," with a link to the group's Twitter account.
