An ongoing U.S. Secret Service investigation appears to have unravelled a partnership between U.S. criminals and foreign actors that had the potential to knock out the entire cell-service grid for New York City. The U.S. Secret Service discovered the alleged threat when the sources of the threats had been targeting high-ranked U.S. officials in the spring.
Special Agent in Charge Matt McCool, from the Secret Service New York field office made an official video statement regarding the case.
“The investigation led us to the New York Tri-State Area where investigators discovered tens of thousands of co-located and networked cellular devices capable of carrying out nefarious telecommunications attacks,” said
McCool. “This Network had the potential to disable cell phone towers and essentially shut down the cell phone network in New York City.”
He indicated the devices allowed for anonymous encrypted communication between threat actors and criminal enterprises. The Secret Service is investigating the purpose of the networked devices, and considering whether interrupting the recent U.N. Assembly was a possible goal. According to McCool, the networked devices no longer pose a threat, but they must go through the equivalent of data from 100,000 cell phones to further evaluate the situation.
“Early analysis indicates communication between foreign actors, and individuals that are known to federal law enforcement,” he said.”The Secret service will fully run down all leads, and identify those responsible.”
The investigation was done with the help of federal, state, and local agencies, including the New York City Police Department. The NYPD had not responded to a request for comment by the time of publication. No arrests have been made this far.
“The potential for disruption to our country’s telecommunications posed by this network of devices cannot be overstated,” said U.S. Secret Service Director Sean Curran in an accompanying press release.
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