Read between the lines: "some cheap VOIP provider was reselling real SIM
cards" (not a crime, certainly not a secret-service-worthy crime, might
be a civil violation of contract with the network or maybe not even
that) "and one of their customers called the white house and threatened
to assassinate the president" "so we stole all this provider's equipment
and we'll never give it back"
Adversarial interoperability is almost the norm now wherever two
businesses without clearly aligned interests meet, and it's not illegal
except in a few specific cases. One party raises their wall; the other
one raises their ladder. See also the use of residential proxies to
bypass Cloudflare, which is also not illegal (except where they are
obtained by infecting someone's computer with a botnet). In the end
nobody wins except the manufacturers of walls and ladders. A good reason
to support open protocols.
It may be a violation of contract, but it's not illegal to violate
contracts; it just entitles your counterparty to force you to repay
whatever damages they can convince a judge they suffered. I know it's
typical for engineers to interpret contracts as things you MUST follow
OR ELSE, but that's not actually universally the case. And AFAIK, it's
debatable whether terms of service are even enforceable at all.
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice, and you should
seek real legal advice from a lawyer before breaking contracts or terms
of service.
On 24/09/2025 13:38, Mel Beckman wrote:
It's one thing if they discovered a criminal enterprise that was
actually using this equipment as their communications hub,
But that’s precisely what the SS says:
“The U.S. Secret Service dismantled a network of electronic devices
located throughout the New York tristate area that were used to
conduct multiple telecommunications-related threats directed towards
senior U.S. government officials,…”
and
“….early analysis indicates cellular communications between
nation-state threat actors and individuals that are known to federal
law enforcement.”
They dismantled a network that they found were actively prosecuting
threats.
This wasn’t just some hacker’s randomly assembled kit of penetration
tools. This clearly cost a lot of money to set up and maintain.
-mel
On Sep 24, 2025, at 2:13 AM, nanog--- via NANOG
<[email protected]> wrote:
Upon actually reading the article, this looks overblown, typical of
the current regime.
Having a lot of SIM cards, a lot of phones, having phones in a
rack-mount form factor, and plugging SIM cards into things that are
not phones are not illegal.
The fact that a cellphone network could be overloaded by a lot of
phones doesn't make it illegal to have a lot of phones. Even if it
/does/ overload the cellphone network, AFAIK it's still not illegal
unless that was your intention.
Their other justification is even worse:
"These devices could be used for... facilitating anonymous, encrypted
communication between potential threat actors and criminal
enterprises" - MEGA YIKES. So they're outlawing encryption now?
Anything that can send communication can send encrypted
communication. It's one thing if they discovered a criminal
enterprise that was actually using this equipment as their
communications hub, as I believe the law allows them to seize stuff
used for a crime regardless of its other uses. But only in America
(and Russia, Iran, North Korea) can they legally seize stuff just
because it /could hypothetically/ be used for a crime, and then not
give it back.
On 23/09/2025 18:46, Mel Beckman via NANOG wrote:
The U.S. Secret Service announced today that it dismantled a network
of electronic devices located throughout the New York tristate area
that were used to conduct multiple telecommunications-related
threats directed towards senior U.S. government officials, which
represented an imminent threat to the agency’s protective operations.
The SS say they discovered more than 300 co-located SIM servers and
100,000 SIM cards across multiple sites, and while the photo they
provide shows gear set up in what looks like an apartment, it could
be that interlopers have infiltrated actual Internet colo facilities.
As a colo operator, I’ve turned away more than a few sketchy
potential customers due to their flakey stories requesting rooftop
or window antenna locations. Be on the lookout.
https://www.secretservice.gov/newsroom/releases/2025/09/us-secret-service-dismantles-imminent-telecommunications-threat-new-york#:~:text=NEW%20YORK%20–%20The%20U.S.%20Secret,SIM%20cards%20across%20multiple%20sites.<https://www.secretservice.gov/newsroom/releases/2025/09/us-secret-service-dismantles-imminent-telecommunications-threat-new-york#:~:text=NEW%2520YORK%2520%E2%80%93%2520The%2520U.S.%2520Secret,SIM%2520cards%2520across%2520multiple%2520sites.>
-mel beckman
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