The U.S. Secret Service discovered a huge, secret telecom network in New York City that would have had the capacity to cripple communications within the city.
The Associated Press reported that the network - which included 300 SIM servers packed with 100,000 SIM cards - was being dismantled. The network would have had the ability to mimic cell phone activity on such a scale that it could have taken down cell towers and jammed 911 communications.
The AP reported that the system would have had the capacity to send 30 million text messages a minute.
"It can't be understated what this system is capable of doing," Matt McCool, the special agent in charge of the Secret Service's New York field office told the AP. "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."
The system was found spread out across multiple sites, Fox News reported. The network noted that the devices were found in areas within 35 miles of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York.
"In addition to carrying out anonymous telephonic threats, these devices could be used to conduct a wide range of telecommunications attacks. This includes disabling cell phone towers, enabling denial of services attacks and facilitating anonymous, encrypted communication between potential threat actors and criminal enterprises," the Secret Service told Fox News. "While forensic examination of these devices is ongoing, early analysis indicates cellular communications between nation-state threat actors and individuals that are known to federal law enforcement."
The AP reported that the network was found as the Secret Service conducting investigations into telecommunications threats targeting senior government officials.
