Anonymous pokes fate bear, leaks FBI conference call about Anonymous
By Nate Anderson
Anonymous pokes fate bear, leaks FBI conference call about Anonymous
Anonymous has begun taunting its police pursuers in ever-more aggressive ways, upping the ante today by releasing an internal FBI conference call in which agents from across the country and police in the UK share status updates on their investigations of the group—and reveal that major new action is coming soon.
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 goal is to build the extra time into the ongoing cases so that it "won't look suspicious." While eight weeks is being requested, judicial delay for even six weeks should be enough for some unspecified but imminent action on the part of the New York FBI.
"We've cocked things up in the past, we know that,” said the UK investigator on the call. Providing the delay is one way in which he is trying to make things right with the FBI.
The official also detailed a West Midlands investigation into a hacker who goes by "tehwongz." He turns out to be a 15-year old kid "who's doing this all for attention and [is] a bit of an idiot," the investigator says. In addition, he's a “pain in the bum” and a “wannabe type character."
And yet—the youngster claimed to have access to thousands of Steam logins (Steam is "some sort of a gaming site," the investigator adds) and may have been involved in a Steam breach that is currently being investigated out of the FBI's Baltimore field office.
Just before the leaked call broke, TehWongz took to Twitter to link up his resume, in which he says:
My hacking portfolio includes Steam (which, when I was pissed with Omni (the owner of this site) I used to hit this site offline for a good few hours. I have also hacked Police websites, released an SQLi on police.uk - Hacked 2 Stock Exchanes [sic], Defaced 2 Banks, DDoS'd MasterCard, Paypal & multiple Gov sites, Defaced hundreds of Websites and given out gifts, Christmas presents, domain names etc for 'LulzXmas' worth over $100.000 to shelters, charities, twitter followers & random people.
At the moment I am looking for any work I can get (My average charge is between $15 - $45 per Hour)
Has he been turned? UK police say they have his hard drive, and other Anons seem to think he's cooperating. But "still I never got arrested lol," he wrote this morning.
The US has clearly been helping the UK out to a considerable extent in its cases. The UK official also noted that the US had provided him with a 325-page forensic report on Cleary's hard drive. "We're quite impressed with it," he added. ("Indecent images" were allegedly found.)
Cat and mouse
The short call wrapped up without much more of substance being discussed, but the leak did shed light on just how many investigators are after Anonymous. Forty-five people are listed on the leaked e-mail advertising the "Anon-Lulz International Coordination Call," though most did not appear. Four names on the list came from the UK, two from Ireland, three from The Netherlands, three from France, one from Germany, three from Sweden, two from Europol, and 27 from the FBI.
And these were just representatives; it's clear many others are involved in the work. The UK official, for instance, noted that his country has an "intel cell" that looks into these issues.
But the leak also showed how Anons are after the investigators. Despite high-profile arrests over the last few years, national police seem unable to put a serious dent in the ranks of top Anonymous hackers. The combination of the FBI e-mail and conference call recording suggests that at least someone in Anonymous has access to internal FBI communications or accounts.
As "AnonymousIRC" put it on Twitter, "The #FBI might be curious how we're able to continuously read their internal comms for some time now. #OpInfiltration"
An FBI spokesperson would tell Ars only that "the information was intended for law enforcement officers only and was illegally obtained. A criminal investigation is under way to identify and hold accountable those responsible."
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