NEW YORK: The US Secret Service said on Tuesday it had dismantled a network of sophisticated electronic devices in the New York area that had been used to threaten US government officials as foreign leaders gather this week for the UN General Assembly.
The agency said the devices were concentrated within 35 miles (56 km) of the global meeting of the 193-member assembly, where US President Donald Trump was due to deliver a speech on Tuesday.
“Early analysis indicates cellular communications between nation-state threat actors and individuals that are known to federal law enforcement,” the Secret Service said in a statement.
Authorities seized more than 300 SIM servers and 100,000 SIM cards across multiple sites in an operation the agency said represented an imminent threat to its protective operations.
The hardware was used to “conduct multiple telecommunications-related threats directed toward senior US government officials,” the Secret Service said.
It said the devices discovered could be used to conduct a range of telecommunications attacks including “disabling cell phone towers, enabling denial of services attacks and facilitating anonymous, encrypted communication between potential threat actors and criminal enterprises.”
The tri-state area where the network was located includes New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.