Anonymous has embarrassed not one, but two law enforcement groups this week, posting to YouTube on Friday full audio from a 16-minute phone conversation between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and UK police.
The hacker group managed to tap into the January 17 conference call after somehow stealing a peek at the groups' email correspondence, reported Sophos' Naked Security blog.
"A conference call is planned for next Tuesday (January 17, 2012) to discuss the on-going investigations related to Anonymous, Lulzsec, Antisec, and other associated splinter groups," read the leaked internal memo, which included both the planned call's bridge number and access code.
Irony doesn't begin to do the blunder justice.
The full information sharing session, which can be heard here, begins with some jovial small talk about shopping malls and McDonald's before the callers bring up two names previously connected to several high-profile cyber attacks: Ryan Cleary and Jake Davis.
Cleary, 19, was apprehended by UK law enforcement last June for his alleged involvement with both Anonymous and now-defunct LulzSec. The latter whimsically vandalized and shut down websites belonging to seemingly random companies, including PBS, The Escapist and CCP Games' MMORPG "EVE Online."
Davis, also 19, was picked up one month later at his family's home in the Shetland Islands. Authorities claimed the teenager was also LulzSec's outspoken mouthpiece, "Topiary."
Other suspected hackers were mentioned by the speakers, including a 15-year-old named Tehwongz, whose real name was bleeped out prior to the upload. A British agent called the young hacker "a bit of an idiot" who claimed responsibility for breaking into the digital game download platform Steam, among others, last year.
Following the public release, Anonymous took to Twitter and taunted U.S. authorities. "The FBI might be curious how we're able to continuously read their internal comms for some time now," wrote AnonymousIRC.
A spokesperson for the FBI told Fox News that a criminal investigation into the illegal eavesdropping is already underway. (via Naked Security)
