A hoax caller managed to get the private cell phone number of the Director of GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) and then later spoke personally to Prime Minister David Cameron.
It is not clear what was said during the call, but the Prime Minister ended the call very shortly after taking it, realising it was a hoax.
Sky News reports:
BYPASS THE CENSORS
Sign up to get unfiltered news delivered straight to your inbox.
You can unsubscribe any time. By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use
A review into the breach is underway at both Number 10 and GCHQ, where a mobile phone number for director Robert Hannigan was disclosed to the caller.
A Government spokesman said: ‘Following two hoax calls to Government departments today, a notice has gone out to all departments to be on the alert for such calls.
‘In the first instance, a call was made to GCHQ which resulted in the disclosure of a mobile phone number for the director.
‘The mobile phone number provided is never used for calls involving classified information.
‘In the second instance, a hoax caller claiming to be the GCHQ director was connected to the Prime Minister.
‘Both GCHQ and Number 10 take security seriously and both are currently reviewing procedures following these hoax calls to ensure that the Government learns any lessons from this incident.’
The mobile phone number for Mr Hannigan is understood to be for an unclassified phone, rather than one of the secure lines used for sensitive communications.
The call to Mr Cameron was made to an official mobile, but the conversation was understood to have been ‘quite brief’.
