Score one for the hackers in the ongoing war between them and government and corporate officials. The online group “Anonymous,” which engages in collaborative, international hacktivism, often to retaliate against anti-digital sharing campaigns by government or by film and music trade associations, recently released a 17-minute clip of a January 17 conference call between FBI and Scotland Yard investigators discussing evidence against Anonymous members, as well as plans for arrests.

 

Anonymous also released an e-mail from an FBI agent to law enforcers around the world with a phone number and password for accessing the conference call and a tweet explaining that, “The FBI might be curious how we’re able to continuously read their internal comms for some time now.”

 

The FBI has confirmed the authenticity of the embarrassing tape, which reveals discussions of the legal strategies being pursued in British courts against certain hackers, as well as banter about McDonalds and the woes of visiting Sheffield, England. The release of the tape comes on the heels of a January 20 action by Anonymous, in response to the FBI shut down of the file-sharing site Megaupload.com, in which Anonymous disabled a number of websites, including those belonging to the Justice Department, the FBI, Universal Music Group, the Recording Industry Association of America, the Motion Picture Association of America, and Broadcast Music, Inc.

-Matt Bewig

 

Anonymous Eavesdrops on FBI Anti-Anonymous Strategy Meeting (by Kim Zetter, Wired)

FBI probes Anonymous intercept of US-UK hacking call (BBC)