UNH professor explains SIM farms, impact of telecommunication threats
The investigation uncovered more than 300 co-located SIM servers and 100,000 SIM cards across multiple sites. One of the locations was reportedly in Greenwich.
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On Tuesday, the U.S. Secret Service said it stopped an imminent telecommunications threat in the tri-state area. The field office in New York dismantled a network of electronic devices that were used to conduct multiple telecommunications-related threats directed toward senior U.S. government officials.
"This is the largest seizure of these type of devices that the Secret Service has ever seen," said Matt McCool, special agent in charge of the Secret Service's New York Field Office.
The investigation uncovered more than 300 co-located SIM servers and 100,000 SIM cards across multiple sites. One of the locations was reportedly in Greenwich.
News12 spoke with Ken Gray, a professor of practice at the University of New Haven, about threats like these and their impact. He believes the seizure of the network was due to the potential threat it posed to the infrastructure.
"If there's crimes that can be connected to this, then arrests may be possible from that investigation. So, they're gonna have to do a lot of investigation on these sims to determine whether or not there are crimes associated with it.
Other than the swatting incidents that led Secret Service to this SIM farm," Gray said. So, what exactly is a SIM farm?
"A SIM farm is essentially a large collection of SIM cards connected to the internet, which allows for a massive number of automated calls, or orchestrated calls or texts to be sent at once," said Dr. Vahid Behzadan, an associate professor of cybersecurity at the University of New Haven.
The devices were focused within 35 miles of the United Nations General Assembly, which started in New York City on Monday. The network could be used for anonymous telephone threats, disabling cellphone towers and denial of services attacks, which can affect services like email websites, and online accounts.
In a place like New York City, Dr. Behzadan said cellular connectivity is vital.
"Many, many services, including delivery services, or point-of-sale systems, or even financial transactions, rely on cellular connectivity. And of course, such wider-scale disruption would translate into economic disruption and widespread panic and confusion caused by a sudden and perhaps total loss of communication in a wide area," he said.
The Secret Service said it's unclear if the plan was to disrupt the UN General Assembly or the communications of emergency personnel, but it will continue to look for those responsible.
