The U.S. Secret Service dismantled a threat to national cell service on Tuesday at multiple sites in New York City concentrated within 35 miles of the United Nations General Assembly where world leaders including President Trump are set to gather.
Over 300 co-located SIM servers and 100,000 SIM cards were discovered and will undergo forensic examination as the Secret Service conducts an investigation on the gadgets.
“These devices allowed anonymous encrypted communications between potential threat actors and criminal enterprises, enabling criminal organizations to operate undetected,” Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Matt McCool said in video remarks.
“This network had the potential to disable cell phone towers and essentially shut down the cellular network in New York City,” he added.
One official noted the array of SIM servers and cards “could text message the entire country within 12 minutes,” according to CBS News.
Investigators said they are searching through “every” text and call associated with the retrieved devices in an effort to find individuals responsible for the massive “smishing” effort.
The agency added that “early analysis indicates cellular communications between nation-state threat actors and individuals that are known to federal law enforcement” in its Tuesday release.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Justice (DOJ), the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and New York Police Department (NYPD) are each involved in the ongoing search for answers.
“Given the sensitivity and complexity of this investigation, we are not able to go into specifics at this time,” McCool said on Tuesday. “This is an open and active investigation, and we have no arrest to announce today.”
“Rather, this announcement is designed to safeguard critical infrastructure and responsibly provide the public what we can at this time,” he added.
The discovery of the devices follows several instances of high-level officials facing threats or deep fakes. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were both subject to impersonation while “three foreign ministers, a US governor and a US member of Congress” received calls and texts from an unknown person as reported by Bloomberg.
