At the request of the US government, the National Crime Agency detained the two 50-year-olds in Streatham, South London, for helping to disable 123 of Washington’s 187 CCTV security video cameras. Authorities believe the incident may have been a dry run for a similar hack planned for the inauguration.
There were 28,000 law enforcement personnel on hand at the inauguration for a crowd estimated at some 900,000, and photos of the event showed attendance was scant, compared to previous inaugurations.
The unprecedented amount of security was driven not only by tensions between Trump supporters and detractors, but also by recent global terror attacks. For instance, authorities made sure to be prepared for a truck attack such as was seen in recent attacks in Berlin and Nice, France.
Although Trump was protected by over 900 Secret Service agents, an Inauguration Day CCTV blackout of that magnitude would have thrown the security detail into disarray. Last week, US officials confirmed that, between January 12-15, most cameras in the Washington DC area were not functional, and an investigation was initiated when it was discovered that many of the cameras were not functional.
The investigation revealed that sophisticated software was used to infiltrate the surveillance system. The cameras were out of service for 48 hours, according to Washington interim Police Chief Peter Newsham.
Washington DC’s Chief Technology Officer, Archana Vemulapalli, told the Washington Post that, "the city paid no ransom and resolved the problem by taking the devices offline."
The suspects were identified before they could carry out another hack during January’s inauguration activities.
According to the NCA, the "officers executed a search warrant at an address in Natal Road, SW16, on the evening of Thursday 19 January. A man and a woman were arrested and later bailed until April 2017."
