Electronic surveillance

Police surveillance system hacked in D.C. days prior to Trump’s inauguration

Surveillance cameras deployed across the nation’s capital abruptly malfunctioned prior to President Trump’s inauguration last week, preventing police from recording video footage for several days leading up to his swearing-in and triggering reinstallation efforts across Washington, D.C., city officials said Friday.

The Metropolitan Police Department became aware of problems affecting four of the city’s camera sites on January 12, eight days prior to Mr. Trump’s inauguration, the Washington Post reported Friday. Technologists found that two forms of malicious software had infected video recorders at each of the four sites, spurring an investigation that subsequently identified dozens of other affected devices across the District, police officials told the Post.

The infections prevented police from using 123 of its 187 video recorders between Jan. 12 and Jan. 15, briefly curbing law enforcement’s ability to log footage captured by its network of surveillance cameras located in public places throughout the nation’s capital, the Post reported.