Telegraph.co.uk  |  February 3, 2012

'Anonymous' hackers intercept conversation between FBI and Scotland Yard on how to deal with hackers

A conference call between Scotland Yard and the FBI about the threat of hacking was intercepted and published by a member of the computer hacking group Anonymous.

By Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent

Police and the FBI discussed details of investigations into ongoing cases against Anonymous and other groups, dates of planned arrests, and potential evidence during the recording of the 17-minute conversation, which was posted on YouTube.

The recording also referred to the on-going court case against Ryan Cleary, who was arrested last June for his alleged role in the group LulzSec.

Anonymous also published an email, purporting to be from the FBI, giving details of the access code for the call and the email addresses of those invited to take part.

It read: "A conference call is planned for next Tuesday (January 17, 2012) to discuss the on-going investigations related to Anonymous, Lulzsec, Antisec, and other associated splinter groups."

Writing on its Twitter account, AnonymousIRC said: "The FBI might be curious how we're able to continuously read their internal comms for some time now."

It also refers to a 15-year-old listed as a member of CSLSec - meaning "can't stop laughing security"- a copy-cat group of hackers with just three members.
The teenager was arrested before Christmas for an incident at his school dubbed "Operation Mayhem."

"Basically he's doing all this for attention, he's a bit of an idiot," one officer says.

The hacker apparently managed to access the call after getting into an FBI agent's email which gave details.The email was also posted online.

The conversation concerned a young member of another hacking collective who was cooperating with the police in Britain.

The attack on the FBI was initially announced with a text post on the website Pastebin. A link to an MP3 recording of the conference call was later put up and publicised on numerous Twitter accounts.

The email referred to an investigation on both sides of the Atlantic into a number of hacking groups.

The FBI said the information "was intended for law enforcement officers only and was illegally obtained".

According to the leaked email, which appears to have been written by the FBI's Timothy Lauster Jr, the call took place on January 17.

During the call, the officers and agents discussed the names of people they were tracking, plans for legal action and requests for more time.

The Scotland Yard officers also joked about a conference on cyber-crime in Sheffield, telling the FBI that they had not missed much by not having visited the city before, adding it was "not exactly a jewel in England's crown".

One of the FBI agents also thanked UK police for their support and for trying to give the FBI more time, saying: "I just want to express our gratitude for being flexible on this. I know New York (FBI office) appreciates it, and the FBI as a whole."

One of the UK officers replied: "We're here to help. We've cocked things up in the past, we know that... It's not that much of a hardship."

A young man identified in the recording, who is not being named by the Daily Telegraph for legal reasons, has sent out a number of tweets responding to the posting saying: "lol [laughs out loud] I'm UK not USA, no FBI can touch me. Idiot...why wud FBI talk about me? I'm not even US & haven't been arrested. I'm still here ain't I? lol...I haven't heard it yet...& I haven't got a UK agent lol."

Anonymous is a loosely-organised group of hackers which has claimed responsibility for attacks against corporate and government websites all over the world.

The group also claimed to have disrupted the websites of Visa and MasterCard in December 2010 when the credit card companies stopped processing donations to WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange.

The FBI confirmed hackers had intercepted a confidential phone call, and said it was hunting those responsible.

Original article here.