Secret Service dismantles telecommunications network threatening Trump, U.S. officials in New York

The U.S. Secret Service disabled a large telecommunications network in the New York tristate area this week that posed a major threat to President Trump and other senior U.S. officials who are attending the U.N. General Assembly meetings in New York City, the agency said Tuesday.

A Secret Service investigation uncovered 300 SIM servers and 100,000 SIM cards across five sites, according to a Secret Service press release. According to investigators, these sites could have been used to send anonymous threatening text messages, disable cell towers and facilitate encrypted communications between criminal actors.

“The potential for disruption to our country’s telecommunications posed by this network of devices cannot be overstated,” Secret Service Director Sean Curran wrote. “The U.S. 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.”