WASHINGTON—The Federal Bureau of Investigation said cybercriminals hacked into a cybercrime conference call between its agents and law enforcement officials overseas.
The 16-minute call was posted on the Internet on Friday. The hacker collective Anonymous claimed responsibility, though the FBI didn't name the group and said a criminal investigation was under way.
Anonymous said it made the call public as part of a series of similar actions against law enforcement around the world. The group is a loose affiliation of hackers and activists with no formal structure or membership.
The breach is an embarrassment for law enforcement, which is wrestling with how to stop cybercrime that crosses borders. One Twitter account that claims to be associated with Anonymous suggested hackers have been monitoring FBI communications for some time.
The call largely consists of FBI agents in the U.S. and Scotland Yard counterparts in Britain discussing developments in investigations.
The FBI said the breach wasn't made on the agency's secure email or other computer systems. Instead it appeared to be result of a law enforcement officer overseas who was invited to be on the FBI call and who forwarded the information to his private email account, which was compromised by hackers.
"The information was intended for law enforcement officers only and was illegally obtained," the FBI said. "A criminal investigation is under way to identify and hold accountable those responsible."
On the call, the British officers discussed efforts to assist U.S. investigations into hackers, some of whom are also facing charges in the U.K. They discussed what they described as impressive investigative work to recover data from hard drives of suspects.
British officers also provided information about a U.K. teenage suspect in a reported breach of Steam, a U.S.-based gaming website. In November, Steam advised its customers that its site had been defaced and that accounts may have been compromised. The FBI agent on the call told his counterparts that agents in Baltimore were investigating.
It appeared from the discussion that the British police didn't take the suspect, who uses the moniker TehWongZ, too seriously, referring to him as a "wannabe" and a "pain in the butt."
A Scotland Yard spokesman said the agency was aware of the intercepted call and that "no operational risks have been identified." The matter is being investigated by the FBI, the spokesman said.
A Twitter feed purportedly for TehWongZ said he suspected his hard drive was in the hands of the FBI but, "Still, I never got arrested."
The parent company of Steam didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Much of the call involves joking and conversational asides that aren't work-related.
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