Lizard Squad Claims Responsibility for Hacking Malaysia Airlines Website, Threatens to Publish Passengers’ Personal Information

The hacker group Lizard Squad claimed responsibility for a tasteless prank that replaced the Malaysia Airlines website with a hurtful joke about the disappearance of flight MH370.

Visitors to the official Malaysia Airlines on Monday were greeted with a picture of a pipe-smoking lizard wearing a top hat alongside an error message that read: “404 Plane Not Found.” The play on the familiar “404 Page Not Found” error message was a crude reference to the disappearance of flight Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which vanished over the Indian Ocean on March 8, 2014.

Loved ones of the victims onboard the ill-fated flight will certainly find the tasteless cyber-prank hurtful, but a reference to terrorism and a threat to publish passengers’ personal information have raised alarming security concerns.

According to an AP report, the words “ISIS will prevail” initially appeared on the page’s browser tab. The doctored error message displayed on the website for several hours on Monday included a claim of responsibility from a hacker group well-known to authorities. The message, reading “Hacked By Lizard Squad — Official Cyber Caliphate,” is believed to be another reference to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Although the hacker group does not have any clear links to terrorist organizations, Lizard Squad has been known to make references to ISIS in the past.

A statement from Malaysia Airlines called the hack a “temporary glitch” and insisted that passengers’ personal information “remains secure.” Lizard Squad responded with a media statement via Twitter, accusing the airline of “lying” and insisting that the group is organizing a “data dump” of personal information obtained in the cyber-attack.

[MEDIA STATEMENT]: We would like to point out that @MAS is lying about user data not being compromised. Refer to earlier imgur link.

— Lizard Squad (@LizardMafia) January 26, 2015

Lizard Squad has taken responsibility for the Christmas denial of service attacks against Xbox and PlayStation and claims to have caused service disruptions on Facebook, Instagram, Tinder, AIM and HipChat as recently as Monday evening.

[Photo: AP]