Secret Service dismantles telecom threat around U.N. capable of crippling cell service in NYC

"While close to 150 world leaders prepared to descend on Manhattan for the U.N. General Assembly, the U.S. Secret Service was quietly dismantling a massive hidden telecom network across the New York area - a system investigators say could have crippled cell towers, jammed 911 calls and flooded networks with chaos at the very moment the city was most vulnerable."

"The cache, made up of more than 300 SIM servers packed with over 100,000 SIM cards and clustered within 35 miles of the United Nations, represents one of the most sweeping communications threats uncovered on U.S. soil. Investigators warn the system could have blacked out cellular service in a city that relies on it not only for daily life but for emergency response and counterterrorism."

A concealed telecom network of more than 300 SIM servers and over 100,000 SIM cards was discovered clustered within 35 miles of the United Nations. The servers functioned like banks of mock cellphones able to generate mass calls and texts, overwhelm local networks, mask encrypted criminal communications and potentially jam 911 and disable cell towers. Secret Service investigators uncovered the cache during a broader probe into telecommunications threats targeting senior government officials as world leaders gathered for the U.N. General Assembly. Officials warned the system could have blacked out cellular service and disrupted emergency response and counterterrorism.

Read at Boston.com