As close to 150 world leaders arrived in Manhattan for the U.N. General Assembly, the U.S. Secret Service was secretly taking down a massive, hidden telecom network. This system, which investigators say could have disabled cell towers, jammed 911 calls, and flooded networks, was a major threat at a time when the city was most vulnerable. The collection of more than 300 servers packed with over 100,000 SIM cards and located within 35 miles of the United Nations is one of the most significant communications threats ever found on U.S. soil. Investigators warn that the system could have caused a complete cellular blackout in a city that relies on service for daily life as well as emergency response and counterterrorism. Officials say the discovery, made just as foreign leaders filled midtown hotels and motorcades clogged Manhattan, shows a new type of risk: attacks on the invisible infrastructure that keeps a modern city connected.
The network was found as part of a larger Secret Service investigation into telecom threats against high-ranking government officials. The servers were found at several sites and functioned like banks of fake cell phones, able to generate mass calls and texts, overwhelm local networks, and hide encrypted communications for criminals. Special Agent Matt McCool, who is in charge of the Secret Service’s New York field office, said, “It can’t be understated what this system is capable of doing. It can take down cell towers, so then no longer can people communicate, right? . . . You can’t text message, you can’t use your cell phone. And if you coupled that with some sort of other event associated with UNGA, you know, use your imagination there, it could be catastrophic to the city.” However, officials have not found a direct plot to disrupt the U.N. General Assembly and note there are no known credible threats to New York City.
Forensic analysis is still in its early stages, but agents believe that nation-state actors—perpetrators from specific countries—used the system to send encrypted messages to organized crime groups, cartels, and terrorist organizations, McCool said. Authorities have not yet revealed details about the specific government or criminal groups linked to the network. The process will take time. “We need to do forensics on 100,000 cell phones, essentially all the phone calls, all the text messages, anything to do with communications, see where those numbers end up,” McCool explained.
When agents entered the sites, they found rows of servers and shelves stacked with SIM cards. More than 100,000 were already active, but there were also many waiting to be used. This was evidence that operators were preparing to double or even triple the network’s capacity, according to McCool. He described it as a well-funded, highly organized operation that cost millions of dollars just for the hardware and SIM cards. The operation could send up to 30 million text messages a minute. Sean Curran, the agency’s director, said in a statement that “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.”
Officials also warned of the havoc the network could have caused if it had remained intact. McCool compared the potential impact to the cellular blackouts that followed the September 11 attacks and the Boston Marathon bombing, when networks collapsed under strain. In this case, he said, attackers would have been able to force that kind of shutdown at a time of their choosing. McCool added, “Could there be others? It’d be unwise to think that there’s not other networks out there being made in other cities in the United States.”
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