Massive Rogue Telecom Threat Uncovered by the Secret Service in NYC

[SC Maintenance]

I believe you over the Secret Service Sorry but you don't have the qualifications nor involved with the investigation.

I am the "proxy" of lamestream media? Please know what you are talking about before making insinuations. Something lacking in your posts.
The Secret Service statement in is post #1 I am sure you can read it.
It starts with this "U.S. Secret Service dismantles imminent telecommunications threat in New York tristate area"

I guess this is just another thread to close, a select few lacking the ability to have a discussion based on the information given by one of our security agencies.

Please point to me in our own Secret Service word salad article where it says they can cripple the NYC cell system? It doesn't. But you did. 100% alarmist disinformation. Please quote where the SS article specifically says anything like this:

Wow, threat to cripple New York City cell service undercover by our Secret Service.
A system built and hidden across the New York area made up of more than 300 SIM servers and OVER 100,000 SIM cards that could knock out cell communications in NYC.

It says at best it" "includes disabling cell phone towers, enabling denial of services attacks and facilitating anonymous, encrypted communication" So at best it will disable a few things that the network managers are used to working around on a daily basis. They can't knock the whole thing down - its too redundant and designed to circumvent these things - at worst case via QoS.

 

[KrisZ]

The secret service statement is so generic and broad that one can infer just about anything from it.

In reality, these “senior officials” probably lost a bunch of followers on social media

 

[KrisZ]

I guess this is just another thread to close, a select few lacking the ability to have a discussion based on the information given by one of our security agencies.

Indylan was the first one to suggest this was a bot farm, a term you were not even aware of before this thread. I would say he knows a thing or two about it, since it was a correct assessment.

Few people then gave technical reasons why a bot farm would not take down an entire NYC cell network, but you don’t like this answer for some reason.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

Interesting thought. You know based on the Secret Service link in post #1 that very well could be something in part of the statement. Though the report is very short from the Secret Service the first paragraph could infer something like you are posting. Yeah, if you had a link it would help (update, I think something similar is in the Secret Service Video in that ink)

But here is a statement from them "The U.S. Secret Service dismantled a network of electronic devices located throughout the New York tristate area that were used to conduct multiple telecommunications-related threats directed towards senior U.S. government officials, which represented an imminent threat to the agency’s protective operations."

I believe part of the reason to start the investigation was the fear of stretching the protective services that the secret service provides with so many false threats, of which none were real. From what I understand and I cant remember the source, maybe it's in the video of the Secret Service link I provided in post #1. I believe what they found however is something far more capable was contained in the statement and video.

Looking up the definition you would think that maybe it could be inferred as swatting.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swatting

Per CNN this has been under investigation for months.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/23/us/swatting-investigation-server-network-discovered

 

[alarmguy]

Indylan was the first one to suggest this was a bot farm, a term you were not even aware of before this thread. I would say he knows a thing or two about it, since it was a correct assessment.

Few people then gave technical reasons why a bot farm would not take down an entire NYC cell network, but you don’t like this answer for some reason.

Not sure of your point?
My information comes from the Secret Service, not a few people on BITOG and by the way the Secret Service used the word Sim farm.

100% correct, I had no idea what the term bot farm was and your point is?
Do you know everything? Those who think they do never learn.
This is why I started the thread to discuss. But there are always those who become combative and think they know everything.
No one gave an example of why the Secret Service is wrong regarding the cell network. But you think you know. Well I dont think you do.

"What they found was an operation apparently capable of chaos far beyond masking swatting calls to potentially disabling cell phone towers, disrupting emergency services and enabling spies, hackers and organized crime."

 

[alarmguy]

Per CNN this has been under investigation for months.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/23/us/swatting-investigation-server-network-discovered

Yes. Exactly I wish others would read the links provided in this entire thread. The link you posted is a good one. I have seen it and possibly posted it on previous pages. I mean this is amazing stuff. If they dont catch these people we could be over run in our cities by this stuff.
I never heard of swatting before either. It was a real concern of the Secret Service.

 

[KrisZ]

Not sure of your point?
My information comes from the Secret Service, not a few people on BITOG and by the way the Secret Service used the word Sim farm.

100% correct, I had no idea what the term bot farm was and your point is?
Do you know everything? Those who think they do never learn.
This is why I started the thread to discuss. But there are always those who become combative and think they know everything.
No one gave an example of why the Secret Service is wrong regarding the cell network. But you think you know. Well I dont think you do.

"What they found was an operation apparently capable of chaos far beyond masking swatting calls to potentially disabling cell phone towers, disrupting emergency services and enabling spies, hackers and organized crime."

The point is that you didn’t know what a bot farm was, but somehow you knew enough to dismiss others here and trust the vague secret service statement and infer from it scary stuff.

And you didn’t post any information from secret service, just their vague statement.
You run with article titles that suggested this bot farm could “cripple NYC”. Secret service didn’t make such implication from what I’ve seen.

 

[Hall]

Yes. Exactly I wish others would read the links provided in this entire thread.

It's CNN Too many won't read it only because of the site it's on.

 

[SC Maintenance]

No one gave an example of why the Secret Service is wrong regarding the cell network. But you think you know. Well I dont think you do.

The secret service statement doesn't say anything in particular. Its word salad that there might be some bad guys or state actors on the internet - (like there has been forever). Your the one that turned it up to crippling NYC cell service.

threat to cripple New York City cell service undercover by our Secret Service.

And now this:

What they found was an operation apparently capable of chaos far beyond

Who is "they" and do you have a quote from someone in charge saying what "far beyond" means?

Yes, there are bad guys including state actors on the internet doing bad things. Russian hackers are especially adept at stealing money and crypto. Chinese hackers seem more keen on steeling IP.

 

[alarmguy]

It's CNN Too many won't read it only because of the site it's on.

I can agree with you on that! CNN is as bad or worse than some late night TV shows!
However critical thinking can filter out the facts from the BS, then paste them together with the Secret Service statement and Secret Service video.

 

[KrisZ]

Well my post got deleted because apparently you can’t even post a screenshot of AI answer, because it counts as AI generated content.

But to summarize I could not find another case of a bot farm taking down a cellphone network. Since BOT farms are nothing new, especially in China, one would think we would hear about such a case by now.

It seems that the dangers were largely made up by the media outlets.

 

[PandaBear]

Indylan was the first one to suggest this was a bot farm, a term you were not even aware of before this thread. I would say he knows a thing or two about it, since it was a correct assessment.

Few people then gave technical reasons why a bot farm would not take down an entire NYC cell network, but you don’t like this answer for some reason.

A cluster of 300 cannot take down anything meaningful in 2025. At best this is a VPN network build off cheap 1 to 1 phone connections, trying to blend into a larger population, flying under the radar. You cannot fly under the radar and DDoS to bring down a network, these 2 goals are mutually exclusive in tech.

Don't trust a journalist needing to meet viewership quota.

 

[Hall]

However critical thinking can filter out the facts from the BS

That ability escapes too many people nowadays.

 

[PandaBear]

Looks like the company can't catch a break! In ArsTechnica today:

https://arstechnica.com/security/20...rds-can-be-infected-with-unremovable-malware/

Here we go again. Basically these BMC controllers are in all reputable server so you can control it like you are there, and you can download new version to update it just like another computer's Bios and OS. They found a bug, they patch it, other companies use the same chip (like Asmedia typically) and they protect it one layer differently, with another layer of key, that's about it.

When people buy white box servers like SuperMicro they want white box stuff with nothing custom on it. People don't want to deal with compatibility non standard issues sometimes from big companies like Dell / EMC or HP, sometimes there is a good reason for that, and of course that comes with "different" set of problems. Dell and HP can also have bugs in their own software too, and they too need to be patched when discovered.

This is like saying a ASUS motherboard running generic UEFI has a different set of security problem as those DELL / HP motherboard running their own UEFI. Is it a danger? You want to buy generic stuff then you have to take that generic stuff's pro and con, it is up to you. If they release patches then that's all good IMO. People shouldn't ignore patches when they run these servers to begin with anyways.

 

[PandaBear]

Well my post got deleted because apparently you can’t even post a screenshot of AI answer, because it counts as AI generated content.

But to summarize I could not find another case of a bot farm taking down a cellphone network. Since BOT farms are nothing new, especially in China, one would think we would hear about such a case by now.

It seems that the dangers were largely made up by the media outlets.

Cell networks are huge, and are build to handle stadium full of patrons. You will need to exploit an internal problem like those guys at AWS accidentally deleting an entire region or someone snipping an undersea fiber cable to weaken it enough to cripple it with DDoS.

Plus these days many of the cell networks run off the cloud on demand, and they can easily turn off bad customers or flow control them. You won't notice anything more than a couple hundred ms of latency increase.

To generate a bot net you typically have to turn on other people's computer you hijacked to do it for you, and wifi router likely would be the best for that, not 300 cell phone with cheap sims in one location.

 

[alarmguy]

Cell networks are huge, and are build to handle stadium full of patrons. You will need to exploit an internal problem like those guys at AWS accidentally deleting an entire region or someone snipping an undersea fiber cable to weaken it enough to cripple it with DDoS.

Plus these days many of the cell networks run off the cloud on demand, and they can easily turn off bad customers or flow control them. You won't notice anything more than a couple hundred ms of latency increase.

To generate a bot net you typically have to turn on other people's computer you hijacked to do it for you, and wifi router likely would be the best for that, not 300 cell phone with cheap sims in one location.

Im curious your thoughts on this. 100,000 sim cards (and growing) along with many locations surrounding NYC actively accessing a specific network.

Based on your last sentence it doesn't seem you know about the scope of what was discovered and multiple locations? ("...Armonk, New York; Greenwich, Connecticut; Queens, New York; and across the river in New Jersey – essentially forming a circle around New York City’s cellular network infrastructure, officials briefed on the investigation"), along with ties to false threats to our highest government officials which I believe is what started the investigation.

Its in links provided all through this thread, including the first post, along with video.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation...d-near-the-un-could-collapse-telecom-networks

"Anthony J. Ferrante, the global head of the cybersecurity practice at FTI, an international consulting firm, said the photos show a very sophisticated and established SIM farm that could be used for any number of nefarious activities, including the potential to overwhelm cellular networks with millions of calls in just a few minutes."

 

[Owen Lucas]

Whatever is going on here, I hope they can shut down swatting attacks for good. Or at least make it much more difficult to do and set an extreme example of some lengthy sentences of who ever is involved.

 

[SC Maintenance]

"Anthony J. Ferrante, the global head of the cybersecurity practice at FTI, an international consulting firm, said the photos show a very sophisticated and established SIM farm that could be used for any number of nefarious activities, including the potential to overwhelm cellular networks with millions of calls in just a few minutes."

Anthony J. Ferrante, former FBI and CNN contributor. "International Consulting Firm"

Not trying to be flip - you have to vet your source. If all the sources are in the same circle its not properly vetting.

Trust me, you will get better data from the tech people on this board because they have no incentive - financial or otherwise, to make up or propagate stories.

 

[KrisZ]

He sure is living up to his motto with this one

 

[PandaBear]

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