Alleged MAS hackers also took down Microsoft, Sony

Lizard Squad, the hacker group which claimed responsibility for taking down Malaysia Airlines' (MAS) website on Monday, has also claimed credit in the past for the hacking of Microsoft's Xbox Live and the Sony's PlayStation Network.

According to online technology news portal TechCrunch, users of Xbox Live and PlayStation Network on Christmas day last year reported suffering service disruptions and difficulty logging into the networks.

Lizard Squad also claimed to be the “Official Cyber Caliphate”, a hacker group allegedly associated with the Islamic State terror group and which earlier this month took control of the Twitter and YouTube accounts of the United States’ central military command.

The Cyber Caliphate hackers tweeted a message titled “Pentagon networks hacked. AMERICAN SOLDIERS WE ARE COMING, WATCH YOUR BACK. ISIS. #CyberCaliphate”.

It was reported that the message also included links to supposedly confidential US Army files, although there is indication that some of the files may have previously been made public or aren’t highly confidential.

In the MAS website hack, the group claimed to have taken information from the airline’s servers. It later shared a screenshot of an inbox with passenger itineraries.

MAS confirmed that their Domain Name System (DNS) had been compromised and that users were re-directed to a hacker website when accessing their website.

“At this stage, Malaysia Airlines’ web servers are intact. The airline has resolved the issue with its service provider and the system is expected to be fully recovered within 22 hours,” said MAS in a press statement, Monday.
MAS has reported the issue to CyberSecurity Malaysia and the Transport Ministry. They also assured customers and clients that the temporary glitch did not affect bookings and that user data is secure.

The airline's website was back to normal on Tuesday.