The Secret Service dismantled a network of devices in New York capable of major cyberattacks. Photo / Courtesy of the US Secret Service, The Washington Post
The Secret Service said today it had dismantled a massive network of electronic devices in the New York City area that investigators believe was used to threaten United States officials and was capable of cyber-attacks that could knock out large sections of cellular communications.
Investigators found the devices in vacant apartments and other properties within 55km of the United Nations General Assembly meeting under way this week in Manhattan, service officials said.
Investigators have not linked the network to any threats related to the event, but they are probing whether anyone planned to use it to interfere with communications among government or emergency personnel during the gathering, according to officials.
“This network had the potential to disable cellphone towers and essentially shut down the cellular network in New York City,” Matt McCool, special agent in charge of the service’s New York field office, said in a statement.
“The timing, the location, the proximity of this network had the potential to impact the UN,” McCool said, “and that was clear and something that we had to consider”.
The service began investigating the network in the northern spring after senior Trump Administration officials received threatening, anonymous phone calls, according to officials briefed on the investigation.
The service declined to say which officials were targeted or how many, citing concerns about their privacy.
Investigators later discovered communications equipment including more than 300 servers and 100,000 SIM cards housed in at least five sites in the New York tristate area. The seizure of the devices took place within the last three weeks and was the largest of its kind for the service, officials said.
An early analysis of the devices indicated that they were used in communication between foreign governments and people “known to federal law enforcement”, the service said. It declined to say which foreign governments may be involved.
Officials briefed on the investigation said drug cartels, groups linked to human trafficking, and other criminal organisations had used the network.
McCool said the network presented an “imminent threat to the Secret Service protective operations”.
In addition to the SIM cards and servers, investigators found 80g of cocaine, illegal firearms, computers and phones at the sites where the devices were stored, according to officials.
The devices no longer pose a threat to the New York region, but investigators expect to find more of the devices in other cities as they comb through the data, McCool said.
He said they also expect to find additional officials who have been targeted as they analyse the SIM cards, each of which contains a cellphone’s worth of data.
The devices were set up in such a way that they could allow anonymous, encrypted communications among participants in criminal enterprises, officials said.
The network could also carry out large-scale denial-of-service attacks that overwhelm a target with fake communications traffic, potentially interfering with the ability of emergency workers or police to respond to a scene, officials said.
They said the network had the ability to send 30 million anonymous text messages per minute.
“The potential for disruption to our country’s telecommunications posed by this network of devices cannot be overstated,” Secret Service Director Sean Curran said in a statement.
“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.”
Law enforcement officials have not announced any arrests in connection with the investigation. Officials did not say how many individuals or groups may have been involved in the network.
A new unit of the Secret Service known as the Advanced Threat Interdiction Unit involving cyber investigators and special agents is conducting the investigation. Curran created the unit shortly after US President Donald Trump named him director this year with the goal of heading off imminent threats to protectees.
Also investigating the network are the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations, the Department of Justice, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the New York Police Department.
Secret Service staff have spent months preparing for the UN General Assembly, an event that draws senior US officials and foreign dignitaries from around the world and ranks as one of the agency’s biggest protective events of the year.
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