Massive Plot To Disrupt NYC Cell Network Thwarted Before UN General Assembly

Federal agents revealed Tuesday that they dismantled a sprawling illegal network of electronic devices in New York that had the power to knock out cell towers and jam 911 emergency lines — just as heads of state prepared to arrive for the UN General Assembly.

According to investigators, the discovery included over 300 SIM servers and more than 100,000 SIM cards, all spread out across multiple sites within a 35-mile radius of the United Nations.

“The potential for disruption to our country’s telecommunications posed by this network of devices cannot be overstated,” Secret Service Director Sean Curran said.

Authorities explained that the system could have been used for a variety of telecom attacks, among them the ability to flood networks with as many as 30 million text messages every minute, a scenario officials warned could have had “catastrophic” results for New York City.

Investigators also suspect the operation was tied to threatening messages sent to American officials and that communications linked to the network reached overseas contacts.

Federal officials are now examining whether the entire setup might be connected to a foreign state.

“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,” said Matt McCool, the Secret Service’s special agent in charge of the New York field office.

“Given the timing, location and proximity and potential for significant disruptions to the New York telecoms system, we moved quickly to disrupt this network.”

Authorities did not specify exactly when the cache was discovered or detail its intended use.

Law enforcement insiders said similar setups were also identified recently in California and parts of the Midwest. The current theory links them to massive spam call operations, though some suggested they might also have served more mundane purposes, such as facilitating international calling services.

Cybersecurity specialists, however, cautioned that the sophistication of the system pointed to more troubling possibilities.

“My instinct is this is espionage,” said Anthony Ferrante, global head of cybersecurity at consulting firm FTI, in comments to the New York Times.

He stressed that the infrastructure looked expensive and could easily be deployed for surveillance while foreign dignitaries gathered in Manhattan.

James Lewis, a cybersecurity analyst with the Center for European Policy Analysis, told the outlet that only a few countries — among them Russia, China, and Israel — had the capability to mount such an effort.

The Secret Service stumbled on the network earlier this year during a broad investigation into telecom threats aimed at senior US officials.

When agents moved in, they discovered racks of servers and boxes of SIM cards — more than 100,000 already active, with thousands more ready for use, McCool said.

McCool warned that, left unchecked, the operation could have crippled communications across the region, drawing a comparison to the cell network collapses that paralyzed New York in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

Officials stressed there is no current evidence of a plan to directly target the UN General Assembly and no present danger to New Yorkers.

Still, investigators are exploring whether the devices were used to send secure messages to criminal syndicates, drug cartels, and terrorist groups overseas.

“Forensic work is only just beginning,” McCool noted. “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,” he said.

{Matzav.com}