Scotland Yard is investigating after computer hackers intercepted a highly sensitive anti-terror phone call and leaked it on the internet.
A hacking group named TeamPoison claimed responsibility for the cyber-attack and said it was made in protest at extradition laws.
The group uploaded a recording on YouTube apparently consisting of conversations between Met police anti-terror hotline staff and two recordings of prank calls it made to the hotline.
In a four-minute recording of a phone conversation between anti-terror officers on Thursday morning, one officer can be heard saying that the anti-terror hotline had 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 as "Trick, I'm from TeamPoison, I'm Robert West". After a four-minute exchange, the official is heard telling the prank caller that incident was being referred to the FBI.
In a separate prank call, uploaded by TeamPoison to YouTube on Wednesday, an anti-terror official can seemingly be heard telling the hacker: "You're constantly blocking our phones … people cannot get through when you're constantly coming through here with your phone calls.
"Other people that need our help can't get through because you're constantly putting this TeamPoison stuff on. It's just getting a bit tedious now."
The cyber-attack will raise huge national security concerns and fresh questions about the security of highly sensitive police communications. It comes just weeks after a separate group of hackers uploaded what it claimed was a recording of detectives from the FBI, Scotland Yard and other police forces.
The hacker collective said it had also launched a "phone-bombing" attack on the anti-terror hotline. This is a similar process to bringing down a website with a "denial of service" attack. It involves using a computer or computers to send repeated calls to the number to prevent other calls from getting through.
It is not clear how the group recorded the conversation between officials in the police unit using the anti-terror hotline.
In an interview with Sky News on Thursday afternoon, a person who claimed to be responsible for the interception of the anti-terror calls said: "It took no skill whatsoever. It was pretty much an in-and-out job … It was pretty much simple."
The person, who used Skype and had an American accent, added: "We're showing MI6 that they are nothing but jokes and they are the real terrorists.
"We fear no authority whatsoever. The reason we have been around so long is because we're so knowledgeable. Our main factor is Middle East-related … in a nutshell we really don't care about ourselves more than we care about real people. That's why we're here."
The Metropolitan police said in a statement: "We are aware of an issue whereby telephone conversations relating to the anti-terror hotline were recorded. Officers are currently looking into the matter and appropriate action will be taken."
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