Ransomware Attack On CCTV Cameras In Washington DC Ahead Of Trump Inauguration

Washington DC police were the victims of a cyberattack just before the Donald Trump inauguration when 123 of its 187 network video recorders were found to have fallen prey to two ransomware strains, reports Graham Cluley. However, there was no major adverse impact of this and software of the affected cameras were removed and reinstalled.

The police were alerted on January 12 after they found the network video recorders at four of their camera sites, with around four CCTV cameras connected to each recorder, were not functioning, says Graham Cluley quoting The Washington Post. As a result, public surveillance footage between January 12 and 15 were not recorded by 70% of the cameras.

The department’s Chief Technology Officer Archana Vemulapalli said the system design was such that it isolated the camera network and disallowed the ransomware to affect other networks.

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