"I'm still curious as to how they got past the guards"
What guards? Why does everyone assume there were guards? No one mentioned there were guards onsite except some slashdotards.
Many switches have no security onsite--no one is guarding the place.
Costs too much money.
Alarm system w/ 24x7 A/V monitoring much cheaper. Some use live A/V to control access from another site, perhaps from the RCC itself.