A group of highly active cyber criminals purposely launched a hacking attack on Malaysian authorities during the time of disappearance of the Malaysian Flight MH370. The hacker group tried to infect the Malaysian authorities like government organizations, the police as well as the navy. They attempted to steal information related to the search being conducted for the missing aircraft. An IT security firm revealed that various other countries who were involved in the investigation were also targeted at the same time.
Kaspersky Lab software security group’s Costin Raiu that there is a cyber-criminal organization that is highly active in the Asia-Pacific region, known by the name of Naikon. After the disappearance of the Flight MH370, there was a spike in the activities and attacks by Naikon. The primary purpose of these hackers was to gain intelligence from the countries that were involved in the search.
The gang was responsible for sending thousands of ‘phishing emails’ which claimed to contain updates or were seeking info regarding the search for Flight MH370. Meanwhile, it’s not known as to how successful Naikon has been so far. Mr. Raiu declared that they targeted high-profile organizations in several countries.
The flight was carrying 239 passengers from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it went missing on 8th March 2014. Recently, it was revealed that the search area for Flight MH370 will be doubled if the wreckage is not discovered in the current search zone of the Indian Ocean. Right now, 13 months after its mysterious disappearance, no Boeing 777 traces have been discovered.
The government ministers from China, Australia and Malaysia decided to extend the search for the missing Malaysian Flight MH370 aircraft. They will increase an additional 23,000 square miles if the aircraft is not found in the current search area. According to reports by officials at a meeting in Kuala Lumpur, the extended search could take as much as another full year. It was believed to have crashed in the Indian Ocean region off Australia’s west coast.