A screenshot taken of Malaysia Airline's official website after it was hacked Sunday night.(Photo: Screenshot malaysiaairlines.com/)
Malaysia Airlines officials were trying to restore the carrier's website Monday after it was hacked by a group calling itself "Lizard Squad" and "Cyber Caliphate."
The people behind the hack of the U.S. Central Command's Twitter and YouTube accounts earlier this month also called themselves Cyber Caliphate and claimed to be allied with the Islamic State.
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CENTCOM's Twitter, YouTube accounts hacked
The airline, already reeling from the loss of two flights last year with 537 people on board, acknowledged Sunday's hack in a tweet from its official Twitter account.
Users logging onto the Malaysia Airlines website found an image of a lizard wearing a top hat and a message reading "404 — plane not found." A message below the image read, "Hacked by Lizard Squad — official Cyber Caliphate."
When the site was initially hacked, users saw an image of a Malaysia Airlines plane in flight with a caption reading, "404 -- plane not found. Hacked by Cyber Caliphate," with no mention of the Lizard Squad.
The tab above the browser read "ISIS will prevail." The tab later read "Lizard Squad will prevail."
The airline said in a statement that it was a "temporary glitch" that didn't affect passenger bookings and that the breach had been reported to Malaysia's transport ministry and Internet security agency. It said user data "remains secured."
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.
Malaysia Airlines also said in its statement that its domain name system was "compromised" and users were being redirected to the hacker group's website.
As of 12 a.m. ET, the website was down completely.
Follow William Cummings on Twitter@wwcummings
Contributing: Associated Press
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