Big data could be in the hands of hackers after Malaysia Airlines’ website was hacked on Monday. Hacker group Lizard Squad is threatening to “dump some loot” after claiming responsibility for the breach.
In a statement on its Facebook page, the airline said that its Domain Name System was compromised. The website was down for at least seven hours after users trying to access the company’s website, malaysiaairlines.com, were redirected to a hacker website instead.
Malaysia Airlines claims “user data remains secure” and its servers are still intact, though the Lizard Squad countered by releasing what appears to be a travel itinerary to prove that it has access to the airlines’ customer data.
This comes after Malaysia Airlines lost two planes last year. The hacker group apparently made reference to that by initially directing users to a picture of a Malaysia Airlines’ plane with a message that read, “404-Plane Not Found. Hacked by Cyber Caliphate.”
That message is believed to be a reference to Flight MH370 that disappeared in March somewhere between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing. The message was later changed to say, “Hacked by Lizard Squared-Official Cyber Caliphate.”
Visitors to the website said that, for a time, the tab above the browser said, “ISIS will prevail,” but was later changed to “Lizard Squad will prevail.”
This isn’t the first time the Lizard Squad has claimed responsibility for a breach. In December, the group said it was responsible for an attack on Sony’s online PlayStation network and Microsoft’s Xbox site.
Earlier this month, a group calling itself Cyber Caliphate compromised the Twitter account of the U.S. Central Command.
The system is expected to be fully recovered within 22 hours.
