This protective intelligence investigation led to the discovery of more than 300 co-located SIM servers and 100,000 SIM cards across multiple sites.
They found a phone farm.
So each of these is in theory connected to several towers and microcells. Assuming they all connect to the same provider, how in the hell does it not raise eyebrows that a 1000+ phones are sitting powered on 24/7 at one location? I’d assume that many towers could provide location data down to a couple of feet accuracy. Seems like someone was purposely ignoring this farm.
Wired magazine wrote it up in more detail. It will also reduce spam (which the Secret Service announcement ignores).
Spam seems to be it’s primary purpose. The “could take down the whole NYC cell phone network” is fear mongering. They wanted to make money in ethically bankrupt ways, and that’s all.
Wired has generally been better at journalism than a lot of more “official” outlets, and here we are again.
While forensic examination of these devices is ongoing, early analysis indicates cellular communications between nation-state threat actors and individuals that are known to federal law enforcement.
I have read elsewhere that this is likely an older service, used for a long time, which was used in domestic crime. It was tracked down by the secret service because it was providing help in forgery of fake currency.
It makes sense why the secret service, which deals in counterfeiting, was involved.
But it was spun by the White House for other reasons
Seems like swatting attacks would be better served against the Geriatric Old Party. Send some to the SCRotUS
Why does one need so many virtual phones for swat threats?
