In the latest twist in the long-running phone-hacking scandal, the Metropolitan Police is assembling a new squad of detectives to look into claims that the News of the World stole secrets from the computer hard drives of public figures, journalists and intelligence officers.

Since March, officers have been carrying out Operation Tuleta, a scoping exercise into the covert use of „Trojan horse“ computer viruses – which allow hackers to take control of third-party computers – following allegations made in a BBC Panorama programme.