US Secret Service 'Dismantles Telecommunications Threat' (bbc.co.uk)
- Reference: 0179493410
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/09/23/1441229/us-secret-service-dismantles-telecommunications-threat
- Source link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cp3qxyen1xkt?post=asset%3A9830bd7b-41a0-496b-9b38-3efc6670217d#post
> The US Secret Service says it has [2]dismantled a network of more than 300 SIM servers and 100,000 SIM cards in the New York area that were capable of crippling telecom systems.
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> The devices were "concentrated within 35 miles of the global meeting of the UN General Assembly now under way in New York City" and an investigation has been launched, it adds in a press statement.
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> The Secret Service says the dangers posed included "disabling cell phone towers, enabling denial of services attacks, and facilitating anonymous, encrypted communication between potential threat actors and criminal enterprises."
[1] https://slashdot.org/~mrspoonsi
[2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cp3qxyen1xkt?post=asset%3A9830bd7b-41a0-496b-9b38-3efc6670217d#post
Details (Score:2)
Was the installation used to commit a crime?
If not, why and under what authority was it dismantled?
If so, any arrests? Names?
Any known or suspected ties to existing threat actors or nation state intelligence?
Right now this is Roscoe P Coltrane posing next to a pile of jugs. But it has the elements of something that might be interesting.
Re: (Score:2)
According to the article, the investigation was started after three congresspeople received threatening test messages last spring.
Re: (Score:2)
If not, why and under what authority was it dismantled?
Police can seize equipment in order to investigate possible crime, so long as they have probable cause to suspect the gear might be evidence, then they can take it in.
Also, the location being Abandoned hotel rooms, and the unauthorized nature of the presence of many racks' worth of gear being installed there by the owners of the property is probably plenty probable cause.
Was the installation used to commit a crime?
It sounds like they are still investiga
Re: (Score:2)
These devices, if they had the cited capabilities, were (at the very least) not FCC-compliant.
Just people looking for free phone service (Score:2)
This would not surprise me if the entire setup is designed to give people cellphone service without having to pay somebody.
All the things they talked about being 'possible', seem to me like you could do similar things by hacking, for a lot less money and effort.
Re: (Score:2)
Then why all the SIM cards and thousands of individual radios? That's not how a cell site works.
Re: Just people looking for free phone service (Score:2)
I speculate it was using channel bonding to allow cheap, encrypted broadband access for customers that didn't want to be tracked. The secret service just viewed it as a threat because they couldn't snoop into the traffic metadata. That's our reality now.
The real reason (Score:2)
The real reason: "facilitating anonymous, encrypted communication between potential threat actors and criminal enterprises."
Which implies they view encryption and anonymity as an implicit threat.
Also, TFA: [1]https://www.secretservice.gov/... [secretservice.gov]
[1] https://www.secretservice.gov/newsroom/releases/2025/09/us-secret-service-dismantles-imminent-telecommunications-threat-new-york
Re: (Score:1)
You conveniently left out the whole "threat actor" part.
Not that I would tell them to stop but ... (Score:2)
Why is this a project of the Secret Service? Isn't the FBI or one of the myriad DHS departments supposed to be in this lane?
Could it also be a phone based bot-farm? (Score:1)
I read the article and it's not clear how they determined that it was meant for interfering with the telecommunications system. Could it also be a phone bot farm for social media influencing and such? I mean, I'd want that taken down as well. I just wonder how they determined what its intended purpose was.
Identify devices (Score:2)
Does anyone have experience with the devices in the pictures? They kind of look like rack mount switches, but they have all these antennae sticking out. I've never seen a device like that. Is it an off-the-shelf piece of equipment? What are they typically used for?
Better article (Score:2)
[1]CNN has a much better article going into far more detail [cnn.com] than the BBC blurb.
The main thing that got these on the radar of the Secret Service was swatting and threatening government officials (both Democrat and Republican) via phone calls and texts from these devices. After several months of tracking the SIMs these calls were originating from, and trying to find their physical locations, they discovered these SIM servers.
The sheer volume of them - 100,000 unique SIM cards housed in 300 servers spread across
[1] https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/23/us/swatting-investigation-server-network-discovered
I don't believe you (Score:1)
Sorry, the Secret Service has been a joke agency for a while now