Overview

• Officials report the covert network spanned at least five sites within roughly 35 miles of UN headquarters, with more than 300 SIM servers and over 100,000 SIM cards discovered.
• Authorities say there is no evidence of a direct plot against the General Assembly, yet the system’s location and capacity triggered urgent action to remove it.
• Investigators say the seized equipment could flood networks with mass traffic, degrade service, disrupt 911 access, and obscure the origin of sensitive communications.
• The takedown followed a broader probe into telephonic threats to senior U.S. officials earlier in 2025, with DHS, DOJ, ODNI, the NYPD, and the Secret Service conducting ongoing forensic analysis.
• Telecom experts warn SIM farms erode carrier revenue by masking international traffic as local, strain networks, and evade detection through tactics such as eSIM abuse, AI-based routing, and rapid relocation.