Brit arrested after cyber attack launched on Washington DC’s CCTV network days before Donald Trump’s inauguration
Cops swooped on a South London address after computer criminals disabled a third of the US Capital's 187 cameras
A BRIT was arrested after a crippling attack on Washington DC’s CCTV network just days before Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Cops swooped on a South London address after computer criminals disabled 123 of 187 security cameras in the US capital sparking a major security incident.
The Sun can reveal that just hours before the 45th President was sworn in, a British man and a Swedish woman — both aged 50 — were detained in Streatham, South London by National Crime Agency officers working at the request of the US government.
It was believed the first cyber attack could have been a dry run with another strike planned during the Presidential handover.
The bill for security at President Trump’s inauguration came to more than £80million and saw 30,000 guards and armed police lock down the American capital.
920 Secret Service agents protected President Trump, but another CCTV blackout would have thrown the security operation into chaos.
US officials confirmed last week many of the security cameras in the Washington DC area were not working between the 12 and 15 January.
Officials told the Washington Post that footage was unable to be recorded from their network of cameras and an investigation was triggered.
It found a widespread infiltration by sophisticated hacking software.
Archana Vemulapalli, Washington DC’s Chief Technology Officer, said “the city paid no ransom and resolved the problem by taking the devices offline.”
Interim Police Chief Peter Newsham told US media that the cameras were out of action for 48 hours.
US sources say the suspects were quickly identified in Britain and detained before they could strike chaos upon the heavily guarded inauguration ceremony on 20 January.
The NCA confirmed that their “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.”
They added that “enquiries are on-going and we are unable to provide further information at this time.”
It is understood the suspects were detained for computer misuse after a tip off from US authorities.