'Lizard Squad' hackers target Malaysia Airlines website

AFP
January 26, 2015
Malaysia Airlines ground staff unload luggage from a plane at Kuala Lumpur Inter
national Airport (KLIA) in Sepang, outside Kuala Lumpur, on December 11, 2014Mal
aysia Airlines ground staff unload luggage from a plane at Kuala Lumpur Internat
ional Airport (KLIA) in Sepang, outside Kuala Lumpur, on December 11, 2014
The Malaysia Airlines website was commandeered on Monday by hackers who referenc
ed the Islamic State jihadists and claimed to be from the "Lizard Squad", a grou
p known for previous denial-of-service attacks.
The website's front page was replaced with an image of a tuxedo-wearing lizard,
and read "Hacked by LIZARD SQUAD -- OFFICIAL CYBER CALIPHATE".
It also carried the headline "404 - Plane Not Found", an apparent reference to t
he airlines' puzzling loss of flight MH370 last year with 239 people aboard.
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Media reports said versions of the takeover in some regions included the wording
"ISIS will prevail".
The airline did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Lizard Squad is a group of hackers that has caused havoc in the online world
before, taking credit for attacks that took down the Sony PlayStation Network a
nd Microsoft's Xbox Live network last month.
The Islamic State, an extremist Sunni Muslim group, has seized large swathes of
Syria and Iraq, where it has declared an Islamic "caliphate".
It has drawn thousands of fighters from across the globe to its anti-Western cau
se, and shocked the world with its video-taped executions of journalists and oth
er foreigners it has captured, the most recent being a Japanese security contrac
tor it claimed Sunday to have beheaded.
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A second Japanese captive being held by the militants has also been threatened w
ith execution.
The IS group, which uses social media in recruiting and spreading its message, i
s believed to harbour ambitions of launching a cyber-war against the West.
It is unclear why Malaysia Airlines was targeted.
But concern has been rising in Malaysia after
to the IS cause in the Middle East. Malaysian
ve detained 120 people suspected of having IS
o Syria.
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