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- May 10, 2012
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- Hackers from the online group Lizard Squad have claimed responsibility
- Facebook and Instagram were down at 6am GMT for around an hour
- AIM, Tinder and MySpace were also claimed to have been offline
Social media sites Facebook and Instagram were down worldwide for around an hour today.
Hackers from the online group Lizard Squad have claimed responsibility for the attack, which took the two social media sites down at around 6am GMT.
For an hour the sites both appeared with error messages in the United States, Europe and Asia.
While it was down Facebook said they were 'aware' of trouble accessing Facebook and Instagram: 'We're working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible.'
Hacked? Facebook and its stable-mate Instagram were down for an hour this morning after an alleged cyber attack
Statement: Instagram, the photo sharing site owned by Facebook, was also offline although neither company has explained the reason for the outage
An Instagram spokesman posted on Twitter: 'We're aware of an outage affecting Instagram and are working on a fix. Thank you for your patience.'
The Lizard Squad is a group of hackers that has caused havoc in the online world before, taking credit for attacks that took down the Sony PlayStation Network and Microsoft's Xbox Live network last month.
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.
Yesterday, it claimed to have targeted The Malaysia Airlines website, leaving a message saying '404 Plane Not Found' and declaring it part of their 'cyber caliphate'
Users logging on to the site of Malaysia's national carrier earlier today were greeted with the picture of a lizard in a top hat, monocle and tuxedo, smoking a pipe.
Previous: Yesterday the Lizard Squad claimed they had brought down the Malaysia Airlines website
The image was surrounded by the message '404 Plane Not Found', an apparent reference to the airlines' unexplained loss of flight MH370 last year with 239 people aboard.
The extent of any links with the Islamic State, however, are not yet known.
The jihadist group has seized large swathes of Syria and Iraq in a brutal campaign and declared an independent Islamic 'caliphate'.
It also has used social media to recruit and spread its message.
Source:Facebook and Instagram down worldwide after 'hack'