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Spy Agency in Britain Falls Victim to a Prankster | |
(about 9 hours later) | |
LONDON — At a time when Western leaders are clamoring for greater powers to conduct covert surveillance, a prankster in Britain has turned the tables, obtaining a private cellphone number for a top intelligence chief and apparently telephoning the prime minister in his name, British officials acknowledged on Monday. | |
The unidentified prankster then called a tabloid newspaper on Sunday to boast. He told the tabloid, The Sun, that he had been high on alcohol and drugs when he persuaded GCHQ, the British electronic surveillance agency, to give him a cellphone number for its director, Robert Hannigan. | |
“I’ve just made complete monkeys out of GCHQ; I’ve got the mobile number of the director,” the caller, who was not identified by name, told the newspaper, referring to the Government Communications Headquarters agency, which collaborates closely with the National Security Agency in the United States. GCHQ also works with Britain’s domestic and overseas intelligence services. | “I’ve just made complete monkeys out of GCHQ; I’ve got the mobile number of the director,” the caller, who was not identified by name, told the newspaper, referring to the Government Communications Headquarters agency, which collaborates closely with the National Security Agency in the United States. GCHQ also works with Britain’s domestic and overseas intelligence services. |
“I’m definitely going to do it again,” he said, the newspaper reported. “It was so easy.” | |
The Sun described the caller as well spoken and in his 20s, and said that he pretended to be a representative of Prime Minister David Cameron’s office at 10 Downing Street when he called the switchboard at GCHQ early on Sunday. He was given a private cellphone number for Mr. Hannigan and used it to call him, but the spy chief became suspicious and hung up. | |
“Following two hoax calls to government departments, a notice has gone out to all departments to be on the alert for such calls,” a government statement said, adding that “the mobile number provided is never used for calls involving classified information” and stating that nothing sensitive was disclosed in either call. | |
In remarks after a speech in Hampshire, Mr. Cameron said he had been out for a walk, carrying his daughter Florence on his back, when the call came. | |
“It claimed to be a conference call established, which I do obviously very frequently, between the head of GCHQ and some of the staff in my office,” he said. | “It claimed to be a conference call established, which I do obviously very frequently, between the head of GCHQ and some of the staff in my office,” he said. |
“A voice came through, a voice I didn’t recognize,” Mr. Cameron said. “The voice said that he was sorry to wake me up, which I thought was strange as it was 11 o’clock in the morning, and so I quite rapidly asked ‘Who is this?’ to which the answer came ‘It is a hoax call,’ and so I pushed the red button on the BlackBerry, which ended the call.” | “A voice came through, a voice I didn’t recognize,” Mr. Cameron said. “The voice said that he was sorry to wake me up, which I thought was strange as it was 11 o’clock in the morning, and so I quite rapidly asked ‘Who is this?’ to which the answer came ‘It is a hoax call,’ and so I pushed the red button on the BlackBerry, which ended the call.” |
“No harm was done, no national security was breached,” Mr. Cameron said. “But it is important, when these things happen, to make sure we do everything we can to put in place systems to weed out hoax calls. But every now and again I suspect these things will happen.” | |
The GCHQ website said on Monday that the agency was reissuing a document called “10 Steps to Cybersecurity,” with “updated guidance on the practical steps that organizations can take to improve the security of their networks and the information carried on them.” | |