The U.S. Secret Service announced that it has dismantled a network of electronic devices scattered across the New York tristate area that, according to the agency, posed “an imminent threat” to protective operations and were used to issue anonymous telephonic threats against senior U.S. government officials. A “nation-state” was allegedly involved in the nefarious operation.
The operation unfolded Tuesday, September 23 as world leaders convened in Manhattan for the United Nations General Assembly. The breaking announcement was “designed to safeguard critical infrastructure” and to protect the public interest “responsibly,” according to Matthew McCool, the special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s New York Field Office.
In a press release Tuesday, the agency disclosed that its protective intelligence probe uncovered “more than 300 co-located SIM servers and 100,000 SIM cards across multiple sites.” Early forensic analysis, officials added, indicates cellular communications “between nation-state threat actors and individuals who are known to federal law enforcement.”
The press release featured a linked video from Special Agent McCool explaining that the announcement was necessary due to its being “a matter of public interest, given the timing, amount, and concentration of material recovered during a recent Secret Service protective intelligence investigation.” McCool went on to say that the intelligence investigation was initially triggered in spring 2025 because of telecommunications chatter allegedly directing “imminent threats toward senior U.S. government officials.” A new interdiction unit (the Advanced Threat Interdiction Unity [AITU]) was formed to lead the operation.
Secret Service director Sean M. Curran framed the action as a preventative strike aimed at neutralizing the risk before any disruption or attack could materialize. “The potential for disruption to our country’s telecommunications posed by this network of devices cannot be overstated,” Curran said, emphasizing the urgency of the operation. “Imminent threats to our protectees will be immediately investigated, tracked down, and dismantled,” Curran continued.
The Secret Service also leveraged “technical assistance and the support of federal partners, including Homeland Security Investigations, the Department of Justice, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.” State and local law enforcement, including the NYPD, supported the operation.
According to McCool, the cache consisted of SIM servers — often called SIM boxes — co-located in clusters and wired to handle large volumes of cellular connections. Pictured in the press release is a “wall of sim boxes” and other networking equipment. McCool stated,
These devices allowed anonymous encrypted communications between potential threat actors and criminal enterprises, enabling criminal organizations. To operate undetected, this network had the potential to disable cellphone towers and essentially shut down the cellular network in New York City.
The equipment was reportedly concentrated within a 35-mile radius of the U.N. gathering now underway in New York City.
SIM box networks can be used in cyber-enabled fraud and telephony abuse, including caller-ID spoofing, mass robocalling, and the evasion of law enforcement efforts. The public release included photographs of racks of seized hardware — rows of modular devices labeled as SIM boxes and bins filled with SIM cards — suggesting the operation’s scale and its industrial-level build-out.
Due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, the Secret Service did not enumerate specific arrests, targets, or locations. However, it characterized the activity as both operationally close to high-profile protectees and technically capable of degrading communications in America’s most densely populated metropolitan area.
A forensic examination of “the equivalent of 100,000 cellphones’ worth of data is underway,” according to McCool. Investigators do not know whether the plan was “to disrupt the U.N. General Assembly and communications of government and emergency personnel” as world leaders convened in and around New York City. President Trump delivered opening remarks at the beginning of Tuesday’s meeting.
Image via Picryl.