Secret Service Dismantles NY Telecom Threat Amid UN Meeting

The U.S. Secret Service said it disrupted a network of devices across the New York tristate area tied to nation-state threat actors targeting senior U.S. government officials as the United Nations General Assembly convened Tuesday in Manhattan.

Secret Service Director Sean Curran said in a press release that the potential disruption to U.S. telecommunications infrastructure posed by the network “cannot be overstated.” An early analysis indicated the devices were communicating with nation-state threat actors, following the discovery of more than 300 co-located SIM servers and 100,000 SIM cards across multiple states – most concentrated within 35 miles of the UNGA meeting.

The announcement came as global leaders gathered at the U.N. headquarters, where President Donald Trump delivered remarks Tuesday afternoon that touched on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war. While the Secret Service said the network was used “to conduct multiple telecommunications-related threats directed towards senior U.S. government officials,” it remains unclear whether other world leaders or their delegations were also targeted.

The Secret Service’s newly established Advanced Threat Interdiction Unit – created to disrupt the most advanced and significant threats – is leading the investigation into the device network and communications between known individuals under federal scrutiny and foreign adversaries. The agency said early findings also show the network could carry out anonymous telephonic threats and enable a wide range of telecommunications attacks, including disabling cell towers, launching denial-of-service attacks and facilitating encrypted communications between threat actors and criminal enterprises.

The Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations, the Department of Justice, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the New York police department are assisting in the ongoing investigation, according to the announcement, providing technical expertise and support. Federal officials have not disclosed who may have operated the network or whether any arrests have been made.

The Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.