The US Secret Service on Tuesday said it has dismantled a massive nation-state threat campaign targeting senior US officials with more than 100,000 hidden networking devices aimed at disrupting New York City’s telecommunications infrastructure.
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The US Secret Service dismantles a major critical infrastructure threat to telecommunications services throughout the New York tri-state area.
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Hidden 'SIM farms' had the potential to cripple all cellular services in the city, posing a risk to the UN Assembly and the emergency services.
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Authorities say the imminent threat is neutralized, though no arrests have been made.
The agency revealed that more than 300 co-located SIM servers and 100,000 SIM cards were found across multiple sites within a 35-mile radius of New York City and the surrounding tristate area.
The malicious network could have been used to conduct a wide range of telecommunications attacks, including “disabling cell phone towers, targeted denial of service (DoS) attacks, and facilitating anonymous, encrypted communication between potential threat actors and criminal enterprises,” it said.
The US Secret Service’s Advanced Threat Interdiction Unit uncovered the strategically placed network of electronic devices just days before world leaders gather for a week-long United Nations General Assembly meeting on Manhattan’s East Side, which began on Tuesday.
“The potential for disruption to our country’s telecommunications posed by this network of devices cannot be overstated,” said US Secret Service Director Sean Curran.
The “active SIM farms” were discovered inside abandoned apartment buildings at more than five sites, reports CBS News, stating that the networking devices were “capable of sending 30 million text messages per minute.”
Calling the campaign an “imminent threat,” the Secret Service said that while the forensic investigation is still ongoing, “early analysis indicates” that cellular communications have already been observed taking place “between foreign threat actors and individuals known to federal law enforcement.”
This network was so powerful, the threat actors had the potential to “essentially shut down the cellular network in New York City,” it said, disrupting not just the UN General Assembly but also New York City’s government and emergency services.
The Secret Service 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 and carrying out anonymous telephonic attacks, disrupting the threat before world leaders arrived for the UN General… pic.twitter.com/sZKUeGqvGY
undefined U.S. Secret Service (@SecretService) September 23, 2025
Connection to foreign threat actors, criminal enterprises
“Given the timing, location, proximity, and potential for significant disruptions to the New York telecom system, we moved quickly to disrupt this network,” a Secret Service spokesperson said in a video announcing the take-down operation.
Investigators are now tasked with examining the equivalent of 100,000 cell phones' worth of data.
The agency further alluded to the fact that the networking equipment, since confiscated by US authorities, has already been used to conduct multiple telecommunications-related threats directed towards senior US government officials, although it did not mention specifics.
“We know of nation-state actors such as Volt Typhoon that are constantly working on getting their hands on edge devices, including home routers, to create massive networks under their control,” said Jeremy Turner, VP of Threat Intelligence and Research at Security Scorecard.
No arrests have been made at this time. However, the agency stressed that the threat posed to New York’s telecoms infrastructure has been fully eliminated.
Still, Turner pointed out, "While exact intentions in this case are presently unknown, we have seen this type of network used for fraud, such as the recent use of cell phone farms to send text messages for toll payment scams."
Turner is referring to a 604% surge in phishing text messages (a tactic known as smishing) targeting EZPass customers with fake toll fees, observed by multiple state government agencies, including New York, since the beginning of 2025.
“The US Secret Service’s protective mission is all about prevention, and this investigation makes it clear to potential bad actors that imminent threats to our protectees will be immediately investigated, tracked down, and dismantled,” Curran said.
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