The US Secret Service announced on Tuesday that it had dismantled a telecom network in the New York tristate area that posed an imminent threat to senior US officials and had the potential to disrupt cellular services. The operation comes ahead of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, where world leaders, including US President Donald Trump, are scheduled to deliver speeches. This will be Trump’s first address to the assembly since his re-election, even as Israeli strikes continue in Gaza City.
According to the Secret Service, investigators discovered more than 300 SIM servers and 100,000 SIM cards across multiple locations, all concentrated within 35 miles (56 kilometres) of the UN venue. These devices were linked to anonymous telephonic threats targeting US officials and could also have been weaponised to disable cell towers, carry out denial-of-service attacks, or enable encrypted communications between criminal organisations and foreign state actors.
https://twitter.com/SecretService/status/1970445933667082482
A forensic review of the seized equipment is ongoing, but early findings indicate potential connections between overseas threat actors and individuals already known to federal law enforcement.
Secret Service Director Sean Curran emphasised the seriousness of the threat, stating, "The potential for disruption to our country’s telecommunications posed by this network of devices cannot be overstated." He added that the agency’s mission focuses on prevention, noting that imminent risks are "immediately investigated, tracked down and dismantled."
The operation was led by the Secret Service’s Advanced Threat Interdiction Unit, a specialised division created to address high-level threats. The unit acted swiftly due to the timing of the UN General Assembly and the potential for significant disruption to New York’s communications infrastructure.
The Secret Service said the investigation involved coordination with multiple federal and local agencies, including Homeland Security Investigations, the Department of Justice, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the New York Police Department, all of which provided technical support.
