13 April 2012

Two Teens Arrested In Connection With Anti-Terrorist Hotline Hacking

An investigation into the alleged hacking of a highly sensitive anti-terrorist hotline has lead to the arrest of two teenagers.

Scotland Yard started an investigation after a new hacking group called TeamPoison uploaded a recording, allegedly of a phone conversation between Met police anti-terrorist hotline staff, to YouTube.

Detectives from the Police Central e-Crime Unit arrested the boys, aged 16 and 17, at an address in the West Midlands. They were arrested on suspicion of offences under the Malicious Communications Act and the Computer Misuse Act.

In the four-minute recording, made on Thursday morning, anti-terrorist staff can be heard saying that the hotline has been subject to about 700 phone calls "from a group known as TeamPoison". The person is then heard to say: "One of the conversations I had last night was leaked on YouTube."

That leaked conversation is understood to be a prank call from a TeamPoison member identifying himself with the words "Trick, I'm from TeamPoison, I'm Robert West." After a four-minute exchange, the official is heard telling the prank caller that the incident is being referred to the FBI.

It is not known how the recordings were made but Metropolitan police have said they were not recorded using their “internal systems”.

In an interview with Sky News on Thursday afternoon, a person who claimed to be responsible for the interception of the anti-terrorist calls said: "It took no skill whatsoever. It was pretty much an in-and-out job … It was pretty much simple."

Ailsa Beaton, director of information for the Met, said: "We have throughout the day researched the allegation that the anti-terrorist hotline had been hacked and activists' claims that they were able to listen unrestricted to confidential communications. We are confident the [Met] communication systems have not been breached and remain, as they always have been, secure. We are satisfied that any recording would have been made via the receiving handset only and not from an attack on internal systems. The public can remain confident in the ability to communicate in confidence and that the integrity of the anti-terrorist hotline remains in place."

(H)