The Government Communications Headquarters in Britain. Image: GHCQ/British Ministry of Defence
British officials acknowledged on Monday that a prank caller managed to social-engineer the private cell number for a top GHCQ intel chief, and phoned the prime minister in his name.
When the man spoke to British tabloid The Sun about how he totally owned one of the world's most powerful spy agencies, the hoaxster said he was "off my face on booze and cocaine".
From the New York Times:
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'm definitely going to do it again," he said, the newspaper reported. "It was so easy."
Prime Minister David Cameron spoke about the hoax after delivering a speech in Hampshire Monday, and said he was out on a walk with his family when the call came through on his BlackBerry.
"These things do happen from time to time. It's right when they do we properly look at security. What happened on this occasion – and it's the only occasion it's happened in this way to me – having had a day trip to Saudi Arabia, I was taking my family for a nice walk, I had Florence on my back to add to the exercise regime."
"My BlackBerry went in my pocket, it happened to be a conference call, a voice came through I didn't recognise. This voice said he was sorry to wake me up, which I felt was strange as it was 11am. I rapidly asked 'Who is it?' and the voice said 'It's a hoax call', so I pushed the red button on the BlackBerry.
"No harm was done, no national security was breached. It's right we put into place systems to weed out hoax calls."
From the BBC's coverage:
Tony Porter, the Surveillance Camera Commissioner for England and Wales, told the BBC that hoax calls to GCHQ and Downing Street would cause "some embarrassment" and security procedures were likely to be reviewed.
"Anybody viewing that would have to say it is not only a concern but it must never happen again," he told 5 Live Breakfast.
"I would imagine there is an awful lot of work behind the scenes looking at where that gap was and I imagine there would be a lot of work to eradicate that error, that gap, to make sure it does not happen again."
"Spy Agency in Britain Falls Victim to a Prankster" [nytimes.com]
Here's the Sun's coverage, but you'd need to subscribe to get access, and who wants to do that.
