The author is describing the typical pattern of these things (SIM farms, email spam hosts, Proxy Networks, etc.) which don't typically get VC money or large investments, but grow organically.
It's not actually a contrarian view. Hacker News, the comments section of The Register, and other places where one might expect a larger proportion of the readership to know how telecommunications actually works, are all covering these same points.
The involvement of the politicians was someone that was using this kit almost certainly for some minor side-line, as one does not need expensive kit capable of transmitting thousands of simultaneous messages from sites in three states in order to send hoax police reports.
Indeed, the people whose operations (most probably high volume scamming, or some kind of dodgy telecommunications carrier) were primarily the purpose of this kit are probably rather cross with whoever it was who saw this kit as an opportunity for pursuing their own ends. It's the old found-major-criminal-through-a-broken-tail-light story.
My guess is they did some sort of sweep in advance of the president’s visit and the secret service decided, probably rashly, to do something about it instead of ignore it.
The NY Post, dipshits that they are, broke the story and were the headliner on Drudge Report. They spun/blew up the story as being potentially the biggest telecom disruption since 9/11.
Bullshit experts weighed in that only the Chinese, Russians or Israelis could possibly buy SIM cards. That’s how you know it’s bullshit, as outcomes of counterintelligence investigations that make the security services look dumb don’t get headline billing.
The other news outlets went with a slightly less unhinged variant of the story.
The author is describing the typical pattern of these things (SIM farms, email spam hosts, Proxy Networks, etc.) which don't typically get VC money or large investments, but grow organically.
It's not actually a contrarian view. Hacker News, the comments section of The Register, and other places where one might expect a larger proportion of the readership to know how telecommunications actually works, are all covering these same points.
The involvement of the politicians was someone that was using this kit almost certainly for some minor side-line, as one does not need expensive kit capable of transmitting thousands of simultaneous messages from sites in three states in order to send hoax police reports.
Indeed, the people whose operations (most probably high volume scamming, or some kind of dodgy telecommunications carrier) were primarily the purpose of this kit are probably rather cross with whoever it was who saw this kit as an opportunity for pursuing their own ends. It's the old found-major-criminal-through-a-broken-tail-light story.
Was it? What does “near the UN” really mean?
My guess is they did some sort of sweep in advance of the president’s visit and the secret service decided, probably rashly, to do something about it instead of ignore it.
The NY Post, dipshits that they are, broke the story and were the headliner on Drudge Report. They spun/blew up the story as being potentially the biggest telecom disruption since 9/11.
Bullshit experts weighed in that only the Chinese, Russians or Israelis could possibly buy SIM cards. That’s how you know it’s bullshit, as outcomes of counterintelligence investigations that make the security services look dumb don’t get headline billing.
The other news outlets went with a slightly less unhinged variant of the story.