‘SIM Farms’ Are a Spam Plague. A Giant One in New York Threatened US Infrastructure, Feds Say
The Sim Farms phenomenon, even on the scale found in this case around New York, is far from new. Cybercriminals have long used the massive collections of SIM cards operated centralized for everything, spam, the creation of false accounts and fraudulent engagement with social media or advertising campaigns. SIM cards are generally housed in so -called SIM boxes which can control more than a hundred cards at a time, which are in turn connected in servers which can then control thousands of Sims each.
SIM farms allow “bulk messaging at a speed and volume that would be impossible for an individual user”, told Wired Wired Wired “The technology behind these farms makes them very flexible – Sims can be turned to bypass detection systems, traffic can be masked geographically and accounts can be made to look like authentic users.”
The source of the telecommunications industry adds that SIM servers and boxes published by the secret services indicate that a “really organized” criminal operation can be the cause of the configuration. “This means that there is great intelligence and important resources behind them,” added the person.
The SIM farm found by the secret services, according to Coon of unit 221b, is not the largest operation he learned in the United States. But it is the most concentrated in such a small unique geographic area. The SIM boxes, he notes, are illegal in the United States, and the hundreds of them found in the secret service survey had to be introduced as a smuggling in the United States. In one case, he participated, said Coon, the boxes were imported from China, disguised as audio amplifiers.
The “clean and tidy racks” of the equipment in a well-lit room show that the operation can be well organized and professional, explains Cathal Mc Daid, vice-president of technology at the telecommunications and cybersecurity company ENEA. The photos published by the secret service show several racks of carefully installed telecommunications equipment, with pieces of individual technology numbered and labeled, plus cables on the ground being covered and protected from adhesive tape. Each SIM box, says Mc Daid, seems to include around 256 associated ports and modems. “It seems more professional than many SIM farms you see,” says Mc Daid.
Mc Daid notes, however, that he has followed similar operations discovered in Ukraine, some of which were as large or even larger than those revealed Tuesday by the secret services. In recent years, law enforcement officials in Ukraine have discovered tens of thousands of SIM cards used in SIM farms have been put in place by Russian actors. In one case in 2023, around 150,000 SIM cards were reportedly found. These SIM farms have been used to operate false social media profiles that can spread disinformation and propaganda.
