UN General Assembly cyberattack: How Secret Service stopped hackers from disrupting cell service in all of New York City

The US Secret Service has reportedly dismantled a hidden, massive telecom hacker network near New York City that investigators say could have crippled cell towers and jammed 911 calls during the United Nations (UN) General Assembly . The takedown occurred as nearly 150 world leaders prepared to gather in Manhattan, a report claims. Investigators uncovered a cache of more than 300 SIM servers, each containing over 100,000 SIM cards, clustered within a 35-mile radius of the UN. Officials have warned that this system represents one of the most significant communication threats found on US soil and could have disrupted cellular service, potentially blacking out communication and impacting daily life and emergency response efforts. The incident highlights a new security risk targeting the "invisible infrastructure" of modern, connected cities.


How US secret service found out about the telecom hacking network

According to a report by the news agency Associated Press, investigators revealed that the network was uncovered during a broader Secret Service probe into telecom threats targeting senior government officials. Spread across several sites, the servers acted like clusters of fake cellphones, capable of sending mass calls and texts, disrupting local networks, and concealing criminals’ encrypted communications, officials said.

In a statement, Matt McCool, the special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s New York field office said: “It can’t be understated what this system is capable of doing. It can take down cell towers, so then no longer can people communicate, right? …. You can’t text message, you can’t use your cell phone. And if you coupled that with some sort of other event associated with UNGA, you know, use your imagination there, it could be catastrophic to the city.”

However, officials said they have not found any direct plan to disrupt the UN General Assembly and emphasised that no credible threats to New York City have been identified.

McCool added that forensic analysis is still in its early stages. Yet, agents suspect nation-state actors that are linked to certain countries used the system to transmit encrypted messages to organised crime groups, cartels, and terrorist organisations. Authorities have not yet revealed which governments or criminal networks were involved.

“We need to do forensics on 100,000 cell phones, essentially all the phone calls, all the text messages, anything to do with communications, see where those numbers end up,” McCool added, suggesting that the process will take time.

Investigators found over 100,000 active SIM cards and equipment capable of scaling the network’s size. McCool said the operation, costing millions, could send up to 30 million texts per minute.

“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,” Sean Curran, the agency’s director, highlighted.

Officials also warned the network could have triggered cellphone blackouts like those after 9/11 or the Boston Marathon bombing, with attackers able to cause such outages at will.

“Could there be others? It’d be unwise to think that there’s not other networks out there being made in other cities in the United States,” McCool noted.