Hackers Intercept FBI Cybercrime Call

The FBI has confirmed that hackers intercepted and leaked a sensitive conference call between the bureau's cybercrime investigators and Scotland Yard.

Hacking group Anonymous published on the internet a 15 minute-long recording of what appears to be a confidential phone conversation on January 17.

Investigators are heard discussing the tracking and prosecuting of the loose-knit group's members.

The recording appears to have been edited to bleep out the names of some of the suspects being discussed.

The hackers also published an email purportedly sent by an FBI agent, giving details of the access code for the call and the email addresses of those invited to take part.

"The FBI might be curious how we're able to continuously read their internal comms (communications) for some time now," the group wrote on its AnonymousIRC Twitter page.

The FBI has said in a statement the information "was intended for law enforcement officers only and was illegally obtained". It added that it is hunting those responsible.

Scotland Yard has said the hacking of the conference call poses no risk to operations "at this stage".

Among the material published by Anonymous is a message apparently sent by an FBI agent to international law enforcement agencies.

It invites his foreign counterparts to join the call to "discuss the on-going investigations related to Anonymous... and other associated splinter groups".

Anonymous has previously 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.