[=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=]

title: Hackers Find Cheap Scotland Yard Phone Connection
source: Reuters/Variety

Monday August 5 12:01 AM EDT

LONDON (Reuter) - Computer hackers broke into a security system at
Scotland Yard, London's metropolitan police headquarters, to make
international calls at police expense, police said Sunday.

A police spokesman would not confirm a report in the Times newspaper
that the calls totaled one million pounds ($1.5 million). He said
the main computer network remained secure.

"There is no question of any police information being accessed," the
spokesman said. "This was an incident which was investigated by our
fraud squad and by AT&T investigators in the U.S."

AT&T Corp investigators were involved because most of the calls were
to the United States, the Times said.

According to The Times, the hackers made use of a system called PBX
call forwarding that lets employees to make business calls from home
at their employer's expense.