British Telecommunications Plc denied the substance of a report in the Independent that a hacker had broken into its computer database and found the secret telephone numbers of the Queen and of Prime Minister John Major’s private office, and threatened to take legal action against the journalist that alleged he had obtained thousands of confidential numbers: it launched an emergency investigation when it saw the report, which said the hacker also found sensitive information about British intelligence and passed it on via the Internet; British Telecom said its probe had shown no hacking into its Customer Service System and despite an extensive and ongoing search, it had also failed to find any evidence that the confidential information has ever been available on the Internet.
