Anonymous leaks FBI-Scotland Yard conference call

Earlier this week, Ars Technica‘s Nate Anderson profiled the online hacker collective Anonymous for FP, writing, "when the Anonymous hive gets prodded, the prodder usually finds himself covered with bee stings and begging for mercy." Today’s victims are the FBI and the London Metropolitan Police after a recording of a conference call between the two ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.

Earlier this week, Ars Technica's Nate Anderson profiled the online hacker collective Anonymous for FP, writing, "when the Anonymous hive gets prodded, the prodder usually finds himself covered with bee stings and begging for mercy."

Earlier this week, Ars Technica‘s Nate Anderson profiled the online hacker collective Anonymous for FP, writing, "when the Anonymous hive gets prodded, the prodder usually finds himself covered with bee stings and begging for mercy."

Today’s victims are the FBI and the London Metropolitan Police after a recording of a conference call between the two agencies about the ongoing investigation of Anonymous was leaked online. Anderson writes:

Much of the call is taken up by a UK investigator from the Metropolitan Police who comes across as eager to curry favor with the FBI. The biggest way this is being done? UK investigators are intentionally trying to delay the court cases against Ryan Cleary and Jake "Topiary" Davis, two UK Anons arrested last year, for up to eight weeks as a favor to the FBI’s New York field office.

The participants also discuss a possible lead in the hacking of online gaming service Steam.

For now, the recording is up on YouTube. There’s nothing particularly embarrassing or incriminating in it unless you’re particularly amused by the British police describing the city of Sheffield as a dump or describing a juvenile suspect who goes by the name "tehwongz" as "a bit of an idiot." But the fact that the recording made it out at all has to be unnerving for investigators.

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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