The US Secret Service has taken down a group of electronic devices near the United Nations in New York in preparation for a speech by the US president. The service disclosed that it had uncovered an immediate threat to Donald Trump with global leaders convening in New York for the UN General Assembly. The network consisted of SIM cards and servers that had the potential to disrupt the telephone network, hindering 911 calls.
Responsible for safeguarding top officials like Trump, the Secret Service located around 300 SIM servers and 100,000 SIM cards spread across multiple sites in the New York tristate area. This intricate network had the capability to disrupt mobile networks and secure communication among hostile entities.
According to Sean Curran, the agency’s director, the risk posed by this network of devices to the country’s telecommunications infrastructure was significant. Officials cautioned that the devices could carry out various telecommunications attacks, such as flooding networks with millions of text messages per minute, leading to severe consequences for the city.
Matt McCool, the special agent overseeing the Secret Service’s New York field office, explained how the network could potentially disable cell towers, disrupting communication channels and causing chaos in the city, especially during events like the UN General Assembly.
The discovery of this hidden network was part of a broad Secret Service investigation initiated in the spring following threats related to telecommunications targeting senior US government officials. During the raids on the locations, agents found numerous servers, shelves filled with SIM cards, and both activated and inactive SIM cards awaiting deployment.
Mr. McCool mentioned that forensic analysis was ongoing, involving examining a large number of cell phones to trace calls, text messages, and other communications to determine their origins. While there were no specific threats reported against the General Assembly, the Secret Service acted swiftly to dismantle the network as the devices were in close proximity to the global summit.