The United States Secret Service revealed today that it has actually found and took a cache of telecom gadgets big enough to “shut down the cellular network in New York City.” And it thinks a nation-state is accountable.

According to the company, “more than 300 co-located SIM servers and 100,000 SIM cards” were found at several places within the New York City location. Images of the taken equipment reveal what seem “SIM boxes” bristling with antennas and packed with SIM cards, then stacked on six-shelf racks. (SIM boxes are frequently utilized for scams.) One image even reveals nicely stacked towers of punched-out SIM card product packaging, recommending that whoever put together the system invested some quality time in simply getting the entire thing established.

The equipment was determined as part of a Secret Service examination into “anonymous telephonic threats” made versus numerous high-ranking United States federal government authorities, however the setup appears developed for something bigger than simply making a couple of risks. The Secret Service thinks that the system might have can activities like “disabling cell phone towers, enabling denial of services attacks, and facilitating anonymous, encrypted communication between potential threat actors and criminal enterprises.”

Analysis of information from many gadgets will take some time, however initial examination currently recommends that “nation-state threat actors” were included; that is, this is most likely some nation’s spy hardware. With the UN General Assembly happening today in New York, it is possible that the system was developed to spy on or interrupt delegates, however the equipment was discovered in different locations up to 35 miles from the UN. BBC reporting recommends that the devices was “seized from SIM farms at abandoned apartment buildings across more than five sites,” and the supreme objective stays uncertain.

While the equipment has actually been taken offline, no arrests have actually yet been made, and the examination continues.