Threats to Trump aides sparked Secret Service SIM card probe

The US Secret Service investigation into a suspicious network of communication devices in the New York City area came after threatening phone calls were made to two White House aides and a top law enforcement official, according to people familiar with the matter.

The calls, which originated with a network of phone technology through the New York area, spurred the Secret Service to mount the investigation that uncovered the clandestine telecommunications ring that was revealed on Sept 23. 

The nature of the targets and their proximity to President Donald Trump convinced investigators that they were facing a coordinated campaign rather than ordinary harassment by someone attempting a phishing scam or other low-level fraud, according to the people familiar with the probe.

A Secret Service intelligence team known as the Advanced Threat Interdiction Unit found a network of more than 300 servers and 100,000 SIM cards scattered across the New York region, concealed in unmarked buildings and apartments. So-called SIM farms allow bulk messaging that can be used by cybercriminals for fraud, swatting and other illicit activity.

The equipment was concentrated in affluent suburbs including Greenwich, Connecticut, Armonk, New York, as well as the New York City borough of Queens and northern New Jersey, forming what officials said was a circle around the metropolitan region’s cellular infrastructure.

Investigators said the system had been used both by foreign governments and by criminal groups inside the US, and was capable of sending out mass spam messages, placing anonymous calls and overwhelming emergency lines.

The discovery came as more than 150 world leaders were arriving in Manhattan for the UN General Assembly, when New York became one of the most heavily secured places in the world.

Mr Matt McCool, the special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s New York field office, said “the timing, the location, the proximity of this network had the potential to impact the UN”.

November Election

People close to Mr Trump began receiving threats immediately after his electoral victory in November.

Mr Howard Lutnick, the then-Cantor Fitzgerald chief who now serves as commerce secretary, received an e-mail warning of a bomb at his Upper East Side home. Ms Brooke Rollins, Mr Lee Zeldin and Mr Pete Hegseth, who were also chosen by Mr Trump for Cabinet positions, reported threats as well, some in the form of swatting calls.

Some outside experts questioned whether the SIM farms could have produced the disruption suggested by officials. The number of servers and SIM cards seized would not likely destabilise networks built to handle millions of users in the New York area, said Mr Alexander Urbelis, chief information security officer of Ethereum Name Service. 

“It’s common to confuse proximity with intent and find conspiracies in coincidence,” he said. Finding a SIM farm of this magnitude, he said, “is more likely indicative of a criminal enterprise focusing on high-volume fraud through SMS phishing rather than on an operation interested in disrupting the UN General Assembly”.

No arrests have been made. Officials said the network’s operators are still being sought, and the inquiry is expected to broaden as investigators run down leads that stretch from foreign governments to domestic criminal groups. BLOOMBERG