[smoovb]

The Secret Service is being overly alarmist, but to a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

“We need to do forensics on 100,000 cell phones, essentially all the phone calls, all the text messages, anything to do with communications, see where those numbers end up,” "You can’t text message, you can’t use your cell phone. And if you coupled that with some sort of other event associated with UNGA, you know, use your imagination there, it could be catastrophic to the city."

So until we do our jobs, imagine the worst case scenario. Thanks guys.

Could be rent US a number service, data roaming, VOIP or SMS termination, account registration (google, tiktok, whatsapp).

There are data roaming services that use 5G GSM modems to transfer the SIMs tower connection to pocket wifi devices for tourists who need data.

[otterley]

I suspect the Secret Service is keeping some cards (ahem) close to their chest. It's not difficult to believe that there is other evidence they chose not to publish that distinguishes a garden-variety spamming operation and one that is more nefarious.

[ajross]

It's not "difficult" to believe, no. But it's easier to believe that cops don't know how radio networks work, though.

This is clearly illegitimate, they can tell that much. They just got the use case wrong. It's for fraud, not terrorism.