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Hacker group ‘Cyber Caliphate’ targets Malaysia Airlines

SINGAPORE – Still reeling from two plane tragedies last year, the Malaysia Airlines’ (MAS) official website was targeted this morning by a group calling itself Cyber Caliphate and claiming to have associations with the Islamic State extremist group.

Malaysia Airlines website hacked by a group calling itself Cyber Caliphate.

Malaysia Airlines website hacked by a group calling itself Cyber Caliphate.

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SINGAPORE – Still reeling from two plane tragedies last year, the Malaysia Airlines’ (MAS) official website was targeted this morning by a group calling itself Cyber Caliphate and claiming to have associations with the Islamic State extremist group.

In a statement, MAS confirmed that its Domain Name System (DNS) had been compromised and users are re-directed to a hacker website when the URL address www.malaysiaairlines.com was keyed in. It said that the matter has been reported to government agency CyberSecurity Malaysia and the Ministry of Transport.

When the airline’s website URL address was keyed in, the webpage first showed an Airbus A380 jet with the words “404 – Plane Not Found” and the message “ISIS will prevail” in the tab. It later showed a picture of a lizard wearing a top hat and smoking a pipe against a black background, with the text “Hacked by Lizard Squad - Official Cyber Caliphate,” underneath it and a link to the group's Twitter account. The ISIS reference was removed.

The rap song titled Hands In The Air, Lizard Squad On Your Forehead by American rapper Billy the Fridge played in the background, with references to ISIS – the former name for the Islamic State group. Clicking on the picture of the lizard led to a Twitter account called Lizard Squad (@LizardMafia).

The page had been reverted to normal by noon but soon after could only be accessed intermittently.

The airline said: “At this stage, Malaysia Airlines’ web servers are intact. The airline has resolved the issue with its service provider and the system is expected to be fully recovered within 22 hours.”

“Malaysia Airlines assures customers and clients that its website was not hacked and this temporary glitch does not affect their bookings and that user data remains secured,” MAS said in the statement, which did not address the hacker group’s connections with ISIS.

In response, @LizardMafia responded threateningly, "Are you really that clueless? Wait until we package this nice present for you".

Malaysia’s International and Trade Industry Minister Mustapa Mohammad was reportedly among the passengers listed. Mr Mustapa, whose name was in the user data, had made a Jan 26 booking with MAS from Subang to Kota Baru, Kelantan, on a Firefly flight.

Another passenger whose name and contact details were available on Lizard Squad's twitter account confirmed that he booked a flight. He told reporters that he would be checking with MAS to see if the booking had been compromised.

The Lizard Squad group last year claimed it was behind attacks on Sony's online PlayStation network and Microsoft's Xbox site. In August, it also tweeted to American Airlines that there might be explosives on a plane carrying the president of Sony Online Entertainment, which makes video games, forcing the flight to be diverted. 

The Cyber Caliphate hacker group has also claimed to have hacked into the US central military command’s @CENTCOM Twitter and YouTube accounts earlier this month.

The Twitter handles for Online gaming service provider UMG Event's vice-president of operations Chris Tuck and CEO Robert Terkla,  @UMG_Chris and @UMGRobert, were listed as contacts for the Cyber Caliphate on the hacker page. Both have since denied any associations with the Lizard Squad. “We didn’t have anything to do with this,” Mr Terkla wrote on Twitter in response to a query by a Malaysian reporter, while Mr Turk replied saying, “(We) can assure you this was @LizardMafia not us”. WITH AGENCIES

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