The US Secret Service, the agency in charge of security for the United Nations General Assembly, discovered a threatening network of over 300 servers and 10,000 SIM cards across the New York tri-state area.

The network could have “disabled cell phone towers and potentially shut down the cellular network in New York City,” Matt McCool, the special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s New York field office.

Key Points:

The network could also facilitate denial of service attacks and could send up to 30 million text messages per minute. All of the devices were found within 35 miles of the United Nations headquarters in Midtown Manhattan.

Analysis indicates cellular communications between nation-state threat actors and individuals that are known to federal law enforcement the report said.

The investigation into the devices is ongoing, the Secret Service said, but early forensic analysis indicates it was used for communications between “foreign actors” and people already known to federal law enforcement. No arrests have been announced, and investigators are still searching through the equivalent of 100,000 cell phones worth of data.

“This network had the potential to disable cell phone towers and essentially shut down the cellular network in New York City,” Matt McCool, special agent in charge of the Secret Service field office in New York, said in a video statement.

The telecommunications gear was recovered from so-called SIM farms housed in abandoned apartment buildings in at least five undisclosed sites. The devices discovered could be used to conduct a range of telecommunications attacks including disabling cell phone towers, enabling cybersecurity attacks and allowing encrypted communication between criminal groups and threat actors.

According to the Secret Service, the devices could facilitate a wide range of attacks on telecommunications systems, including disabling cell phone towers, enabling denial of service attacks.

This also allowed encrypted, anonymous communication between potential threat actors and criminal enterprises.

The forensic analysis indicates potential links between the network and overseas threat actors, as well as connections to individuals already known to federal law enforcement agencies.

According to Bloomberg, it is still unclear whether the network was connected to earlier incidents this year in which unknown individuals impersonated White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

A full forensic review of the seized devices is ongoing as authorities continue to assess the scope and origins of the network.

Investigations started after threats to US officials

According to agents who spoke to the New York Times, the investigation began after anonymous telephonic threats were made against three US government officials earlier this year. One of the officials who was threatened worked with the Secret Service, while the other two were White House staffers.

State of crime

The agency first detected the New York-area SIM farm after it was linked to swatting incidents on Christmas Day in 2023. Those incidents involved Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and US Senator Rick Scott.

The cases were tied to two Romanian men, Thomasz Szabo and Nemanja Radovanovic, who were working with an American swatter, Alan Filion, also known as “Torswats.” All three have since been convicted on swatting-related charges.

Ben Coon, head of intelligence at cybersecurity firm Unit 221b, believes there was little foreign state involvement, and the operation is based on financial crimes.

Images released by the Secret Service showed racks of neatly arranged telecom equipment, each component numbered and labeled. Cables were carefully laid out and secured, which could mean the operation was handled by well-resourced professionals.

The operation is linked to swatting incidents, organized crime groups, and nation-state actors, with equipment seized across New York and New Jersey.

Sources: https://www.telegraphindia.com/world/us-secret-service-dismantles-telecom-threat-network-in-new-york-ahead-of-un-general-assembly/cid/2124609