Sept. 23 (UPI) — The U.S. Secret Service announced it has disrupted a telecommunications network in New York that it said could have shut down telecom services in the tri-state area, as well as posed a threat to the United Nations General Assembly meetings this week.
The Secret Service dismantled a network of electronic devices in the area that were used to conduct multiple threats at senior U.S. government officials, which created a threat to the agency’s protective operations, a press release said.
The investigation led to the discovery of more than 300 co-located SIM servers and 100,000 SIM cards across multiple sites. This could enable encrypted, anonymous communication and was capable of sending 30 million text messages per minute. Officials said the servers were so powerful they could have disabled cell phone towers and launched distributed denial of services attacks with the ability to block emergency communications like EMS and police dispatch. They found the devices in five locations within 35 miles of New York.
“The potential for disruption to our country’s telecommunications posed by this network of devices cannot be overstated,” said U.S. Secret Service Director Sean Curran in a statement. “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.”
McCool said the investigation is ongoing, and agents are working to learn if the target was the U.N.
He said the Secret Service discovered the network while investigating a large number of threats to officials the service was protecting that grew earlier this year.
“Following multiple telecommunications-related imminent threats directed towards senior U.S. government officials this spring, the U.S. Secret Service began a protective intelligence investigation to determine the extent and impact these threats could have on protective operations,” he said.
Officials declined to name the officials who were threatened.
“Each SIM basically has the equivalent data of a cell phone. So we’re working through every call, every text, every search made on those SIM cards,” an official told CBS News. “Early analysis indicates that this network was used for communication between foreign governments and individuals that are known to federal law enforcement here in the U.S.”