Don Mihalek, ABC News Law Enforcement contributor Interview

Mendte in the Morning talks to Don Mihalek about the plot to dismantle NYC’s telecommunications network and the secret services work to stop it.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So there was a major plot that could have crippled
telecommunications in the New York City area beyond New York
City and the Long Island into New Jersey, into Connecticut.
And it was uncovered exactly when the UN General Assembly
was meeting. So what was the intent and how did

(00:20):
they stop this? We're going to talk to Don Mahallick,
ABC News law enforcement contributor and retired Senior's Secret Service
agent who was based in Philadelphia. Don, thank you so
much for joining us this morning.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Thanks for having me on. Guys.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Hey, listen, I want to start off by just saying,
wonderful work by the Secret Service. I think we always
moved past these things too quickly and not appreciate the
great work done by law enforcement.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Now, listen, this was a tremendous case by the Secret Service.
It started out as a threat case, which, in the
wake of the two assassinationtempts to get former President Trump,
the Secret Services hyper vigilant, hyper focused on and that
threat case investigation took them to Brooklyn, where they found

(01:11):
various locations. When they went into the locations after getting warrants,
they found empty apartments that had the scene out of
adjacent Bourne movie completely empty except for data racts, data
service that were all operating at the time, So they
saw that I think there was one hundred thousand SIM

(01:33):
cards in these locations capable of making millions of phone calls.
I think the Secret Services Quota is saying they could
call the entire country in about twelve minutes. So it
was a huge plot, the scope of which I don't
think anybody's seen before, and the type of which, especially

(01:54):
for New York City, who after nine to eleven and
after the blackouts saw what lack communications could do, was
pretty significant. So it's tremendous work by them. The questions,
of course now is who is responsible for it on
the where is this investigation going to lead them? And
was this indeed a foreign plot on us soil.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Yeah, there's a whole lot of questions, but let's stay
with the week here that we have the General Assembly meeting?
Is it do we know? Is it related to the
General Assembly meeting in New York?

Speaker 2 (02:29):
It's not clear, but being that these servers not only
could make you know, phone calls, the spam phone calls,
but they could also commit a denial of service attacks
shut down phone systems pretty easily, including you know a
lot of law enforcement radios these days use why Fi
or cellular networks where they can't get a good radio signal.

(02:51):
And it could also take over cell phone towers. So
theoretically it could have taken over the cell phone towers
in and around the UN. And can you imagine what
intercepting all of the communications coming out of the UE
would look like for a foreign adversary and then using
some AI and then coming out a little differently on
the other end, what that could do to international relations.

(03:12):
So it's definitely high on their list of what was
going on.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
So when you say they, you're talking about the people investigating,
they everybody's trying to figure out is who was behind this?
And I guess the Secret Service right now, and I
know it's not just speculation. There must be a reason
they're saying this. It's pointing to the Chinese government right.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
Well, if you look in the past couple of months,
the Chinese government have launched the Vault Typhoon and the
Salt Typhoon cyber attacks. Salt Typhoon was directed at the
telecom industry, specifically at members of Congress to take over
their communications. Vault Typhoon was targeted at the utilities industries.
So the Chinese have a past record of trying to

(03:59):
target US infrastructure with some of these cyber type attacks
easily committed by a setup that was the size and
scope of what they found in Brooklyn, So they raise
high on this. The Secret Service pulled in the office
of the Director of National Intelligence. So it'll be interesting
where this goes and how it's handled, whether it goes

(04:20):
in a criminal investigator route or an intelligence route.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah, So they don't know exactly at this point. I
guess they're not going to tell us right now even
if they do, but sang right now, Yeah, but they
would know. They want the individuals be the most important
right now. The individuals that may still be in the
country be the most important to find, and then answers,
bigger answers could be answered by that arrest.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
Yeah, they've identified or they have identities of some individuals
that they feel were complicit in this. I'm sure depending
on the way the investigation goes, they'll be rounded up
so to speak, soon and to find out what was
going on. And then they're also doing forensics on all
the technology of the SIM cards and the data service

(05:08):
that they found to see where if they can pick
up digital fingerprints there as well, to see where that
takes them. So, and of course the other question is
where else are these are these type of centers set up?
What other cities, what other locations, you know, what other
parts of the country potentially are could be targeted by
something like this, which is another question that they're going

(05:28):
to have to answer.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
Will this help them find now that they know what
they're looking for, will this help them find those other
locations if they do exist.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah, the evidence that they're going to gather from this
should be pretty significant and would really help inform the
rest of their investigative process, especially once they start doing
the forensics on the SIM cards and the digital servers,
and if they interview or interrogate some of the individuals
that they've already identified that are related to the to
the apartments they found, I'm sure that will all help

(05:59):
direct their investigation. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
The Chinese government, as you said, seems to be behind
many of these type of cyber attacks, and there never
seems to be repercussions for that. Would they be willing
to risk the type of repercussions the United States can
bring on something like this I mean shutting. Let's just
say the worst was going to happen. They were going
to cut down communications at the UN for some nefarious purpose.

(06:26):
Would they take that risk?

Speaker 2 (06:29):
Apparently they would. I mean, it's been well documented the
Chinese have a military branch that does nothing but cyber attacks,
and then they seem to be emboldened to commit these
type of attacks against other nations, and I guess they
feel that they're in a position, a hardened position, where
they're willing to justify the risks. The question, of course,
is with this administration, their response to things like this

(06:52):
usually is pretty strong, So you know, it's a different
environment right now. So we'll have to see how this
plays out.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
And if it's conclusive that it is China, then you
do expect the response from US.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
I would expect that if they link China to it,
that the US government, whether we hear it or don't
hear it, will respond in some fashion pretty strongly.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
Don Mahalak, thank you so much. Your expertise is invaluable.
ABC News Law enforcement contributor and retired senior Secret Service
agent based in Philadelphia. Thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
Don. Thanks guys, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (07:30):
Well that didn't make me feel any better.