Massive New York telecom network threat dismantled

The U.S. Secret Service has averted a potential takedown of New York's telecommunications systems after dismantling an immense telecommunications network with 300 SIM servers and over 100,000 SIM cards ahead of the United Nations General Assembly meetings this week, reports CBS News.

Such equipment, which was discovered near the UN, could have enabled the delivery of 30 million text messages per minute, resulting in the potential disruptions of cell towers across New York City and distributed denial-of-service attacks, according to officials, who noted that a probe into the sprawling operation was launched following threats to various senior U.S. officials.

"We cannot share which officials were targeted out of concerns for their privacy, but as the forensics investigation continues, we do expect that we will find more targeted officials once we get through that data," said Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Matt McCool.

Authorities have also noted separate inquiries into the scheme being conducted by the Homeland Security Investigations and the Secret Service.