The U.S. Secret Service revealed it intercepted a significant telecommunications threat in New York City ahead of the U.N. General Assembly, disrupting a network of electronic devices linked to imminent risks against senior government officials. The agency disclosed that over 300 co-located SIM servers and 100,000 SIM cards were discovered across multiple sites within the New York tristate area.
Director Sean Curran emphasized the severity of the threat, stating the network posed “an unparalleled risk” to national telecommunications infrastructure. The operation, led by the Secret Service’s Advanced Threat Interdiction Unit, targeted devices located within 35 miles of the U.N. General Assembly venue. Officials noted the equipment could have sent messages to the entire U.S. population in 12 minutes, disabled mobile phone towers, and launched distributed denial-of-service attacks capable of disrupting emergency communications.
The investigation followed probes into anonymous “telephonic threats” directed at three unidentified government officials, including one from the Secret Service and two from the White House. Multiple federal and local agencies collaborated on the effort, though specific locations of the seized SIM farms were not disclosed. The case remains under active review.
