A worldwide hacking operation hit major companies and media websites overnight, including London's Daily Telegraph, The Los Angeles Times and Fairfax-owned stuff.co.nz, but no personal data was compromised.

Gigya, a third-party United States company which provides commenting and sharing services, had its domain registrar breached, which resulted in several websites pointing to a new website, operated by the Syrian Electronic Army, when people tried to access them.

The screen shown to users trying to access a variety of news sites overnight.

Other sites affected include Forbes, The Independent, The Chicago Tribune, Italy's La Repubblica and The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Companies including Dell, Microsoft, Ferrari and humanitarian organisation Unicef were also targeted.