The Malaysia Airlines website has been commandeered by hackers who referenced Islamic State and claimed to be from the "Lizard Squad", a group known for previous denial-of-service attacks.

The website's front page, malaysiaairlines.com, was replaced with an image of a tuxedo-wearing lizard, and read "Hacked by LIZARD SQUAD - OFFICIAL CYBER CALIPHATE".

A professional-sounding rap, apparently released on Christmas Day, played automatically in the background when the website was visited.

It also carried the headline "404 - Plane Not Found", an apparent reference to the airlines' puzzling loss of flight MH370 last year with 239 people aboard.