Secret Service Busts ‘Imminent Threat’ That Could Cripple Cell Networks

The U.S. Secret Service dismantled a massive hidden network of electronic devices in the New York tri-state area that posed a threat to the country’s communications grid and potentially to the United Nations General Assembly meetings underway this week.

Officials announced Tuesday morning that the network, discovered across multiple abandoned apartment buildings, contained more than 300 SIM servers and roughly 100,000 SIM cards. A forensic examination of the devices is ongoing, but “early analysis indicates cellular communications between nation-state threat actors and individuals that are known to federal law enforcement,” according to the press release.

“These devices allowed anonymous, encrypted communications between potential threat actors and criminal enterprises, enabling criminal organizations to operate undetected,” Matt McCool, the head of the Secret Service New York Field Office, said in a video statement released Tuesday. “This network had the potential to disable cellphone towers and essentially shut down the cellular network in New York City.”

The equipment was located within 35 miles of the UN headquarters in Manhattan, where dozens of world leaders are meeting this week, raising concerns that the network could have been used to disrupt the high-profile gathering, according to the press release. President Donald Trump addressed the UN General Assembly on Tuesday morning.

An official briefed on the investigation told reporters that the sprawling network of devices “could text message the entire country within 12 minutes,” adding, “This was well organized and well funded,” according to CBS News. The Associated Press reported that, per officials, this equates to about 30 million text messages per minute.

Alongside the SIM servers, 80 grams of cocaine, illegal firearms, computers and phones were also recovered, officials said.

The investigation is being led by the Secret Service’s Advanced Threat Interdiction Unit, a new section of the agency dedicated to disrupting “the most significant and imminent threats to our protectees,” according to the press release. Homeland Security Investigations, the Department of Justice, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the New York Police Department, as well as other state and local law enforcement partners, are also involved in the investigation.

“The potential for disruption to our country’s telecommunications posed by this network of devices cannot be overstated,” said Secret Service Director Sean Curran. “The U.S. Secret Service’s protective mission is all about prevention, and this investigation makes it clear to potential bad actors that imminent threats to our protectees will be immediately investigated, tracked down and dismantled.”