Malaysia Airlines says website not hacked
Malaysia Airlines clarified that its website had not been hacked, but its Domain Name System (DNS) has been compromised resulting in users being re-directed to a hacker website when the www.malaysiaairlines.com URL is keyed in.
"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," the airline said on its Facebook page on Monday afternoon.
The system is expected to be fully recovered within 22 hours, Malaysia Airlines said, noting that the incident was reported to CyberSecurity Malaysia and the Ministry of Transport.
Early Monday, many visitors attempting to access the airline's websites were re-directed to a page with the words "404 - Plane Not Found, Hacked by Cyber Caliphate" in bold white letters, against the backdrop of a Malaysia Airlines plane.
Earlier this month , the U.S. Central Command's Twitter and YouTube accounts were the targets of a cyber-attack by hackers that claimed to be working for Cyber Caliphate.
The tab of the webpage read "ISIS will prevail" and the background music was a rap song.
Names of two hacking groups - Lizard Squad and UGNazi - and two individuals - Nathan Nye and Henry Blair Strater - were listed on the left side of the page, following the words "Greetz 2."
At 02:30 GMT, the background of the website was changed to black with a picture of a Lizard in a top hat, smoking a pipe and wearing a monocle - the same image featured on Lizard Squad's Twitter page.
Lizard Squad, best known for hacking gaming networks, recently claimed for disrupting both the PlayStation Network and Microsoft Corp's Xbox Live on Christmas Day.
Before the DNS attack, Lizard Squad hinted at it on its Twitter Page:
More From CNBC
