IN BRIEF (Page 11)

United States

'Jerky Boys' trick energy secretary

In a phone call last week with what he thought was the Ukrainian prime minister, US Energy Secretary Rick Perry discussed wide-ranging topics including cyberhacking. Yet, it turned out the official himself was the very target of hacking. According to a Wednesday story by Bloomberg, the phone call, which lasted 22 minutes, was actually a prank orchestrated by Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov, two Russians who described themselves as "Jerky Boys from Russia". The US Department of Energy confirmed the incident.