On 12th of January, 70% of the CCTV cameras in Washington DC are hacked with ransomware. This happened just 8 days prior to the Trump’s inauguration on 20th January. Now, the authorities in London, UK have arrested two hackers who are the main suspects of hacking those CCTV cameras.
This arrest took place on 20th of January but the details about the news item have only been shared with media now. According to Sun, one of the arrested hackers is a British man and other a Swedish woman.
The hacking actually took in the city by shock since it poses a huge security threat considering the importance of presidential inauguration and possibility of the terrorist attacks on that event. It should be noted that the hackers are able to hack 123 out of the total 187 network video recorders that are installed inside the CCTV network. The cameras can not record anything for greater than 48 hours.
After the attack, the hackers have also demanded ransom which was rejected by the DC Police but the Police have forced a major reinstallation spree across the city. At the time of publishing this article, the complete CCTV system in the city was restored.
Ransomware is now among the most commonly used malware attack by hackers. From hotel doors locks, smart TV, railway’ fare system, hard drives, Android devices or health service system nothing is secure from this threat. However, when it comes to CCTV camera systems in the United States it is not surprising that hackers sitting miles away were able to take over security cameras operated by world renowned police department. There are thousands of unprotected CCTV cameras vulnerable to hackers.
It is unclear what will be the fate of these two hackers since another British hacker Lauri Love is fighting his extradition to the United States for hacking government websites and computers.
