Anonymous hacked police emails & intercepted FBI/Scotland Yard telephone call

Earlier today, Internet hacking collective Anonymous posted this tweet with a link to an intercepted FBI/Scotland Yard telephone conference call.

#Anonymous #AntiSec intercepts #FBI comms. Conference call [mp3] mir.cr/1SL3XXIR #OWS #FFF

— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) February 3, 2012

Whilst it wasn’t immediately clear if it was legitimate, it has now been confirmed by the FBI which says that hackers had indeed intercepted a conference call that had been set up between it and a Scotland Yard investigation team.

The initial link to the conference call was for an mp3 download, but it was also made available to stream on YouTube. The call lasts for over sixteen minutes, and it’s preceded by an automated voice asking the caller to input the conference call password.

http://youtu.be/pl3spwzUZfQ

The FBI said in a statement today that the call “was intended for law enforcement officers only and was illegally obtained,” adding that it was hunting those responsible. The Metropolitan Police also confirmed it, saying:

“We are aware of the video which relates to an FBI conference call involving a PCeU representative. The matter is being investigated by the FBI. We continue to carry out a full assessment. We are not prepared to discuss further.”

There are six people on the call, two of which belong to the Metropolitan Police, and the other four identify themselves as LA-based FBI agents. Interestingly, the subject of the call discusses the Met’s prosecution of Ryan Cleary and Jake Davis, the two suspects arrested in connection with LulzSec’s hacking exploits last July. Anonymous censored some of the names on the call with ‘beeps’, to protect some of the alleged hackers who haven’t yet been caught.

In terms of how Anonymous accessed the conference call which took place on January 17, it seems they managed to compromise the email account of at least one of the authorities involved, notes Sophos. The supposed email has been published to the Web, and includes details for logging in to the call:

The email is titled Anon-Lulz International Coordination Call, and it was seemingly disseminated to more than forty officers in the USA, UK, Netherlands, France and Sweden.