The U.S. Secret Service disclosed it intercepted a significant telecommunications threat in New York City prior to the U.N. General Assembly. The agency reported dismantling a network of electronic devices across the New York tristate area, which were used to execute multiple telecommunications-related threats targeting senior U.S. government officials. These actions posed an imminent risk to the Secret Service’s protective operations, according to a press release.
The investigation uncovered over 300 co-located SIM servers and 100,000 SIM cards across multiple sites, the agency stated. U.S. Secret Service Director Sean Curran emphasized the severe potential disruption to national telecommunications infrastructure. “This protective intelligence investigation underscores the critical importance of preventing threats to our protectees,” he said.
The devices were concentrated within 35 miles of the U.N. General Assembly in New York City, prompting swift action due to their capacity to disrupt communications. The Secret Service’s Advanced Threat Interdiction Unit is leading the ongoing probe. Collaboration included the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations, the Department of Justice, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the NYPD, and other law enforcement partners.
A separate report cited unnamed officials describing the scheme as “well-organised and well-funded,” involving “nation-state threat actors” and individuals known to federal authorities. The equipment could have texted the entire U.S. population within 12 minutes, disabled mobile towers, and launched distributed denial of service attacks targeting emergency communications. Seized devices were found at SIM farms in abandoned apartment buildings across five sites, though locations remain unspecified.
The operation followed an investigation into anonymous “telephonic threats” directed at three U.S. government officials earlier this year, including one from the Secret Service and two from the White House, according to the New York Times.
